


To Lend A Helping Hand

by WingsWithoutStrings



Series: A Venture In Spider-Y Parenthood [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Awesome May Parker (Spider-Man), Fluff, Gen, Happy still doesn't like spiders, He tries okay, Spider Children, Spiders Being Cute, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-07-29 21:45:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 34,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16272971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WingsWithoutStrings/pseuds/WingsWithoutStrings
Summary: Peter had grown pretty used to having fifteen dog-sized spider children living in his apartment. He always knew it wouldn't permanent, he just didn't expect the move to be quite so emotional.





	1. The Move

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MangoSupreme](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MangoSupreme/gifts).



> This fic is cursed, I'm convinced of it. I've made you wait too long already so I won't bore you with the details here. Without further ado, I present to you part 2!

Peter tried and failed to keep himself from fidgeting. He knew he should be leading by example, the spiders would sense it if he started panicking and that wouldn’t do anyone any good. May reached over and squeezed his hand reassuringly.

He really wasn’t sure how he would have gotten through this without her.

The van turned a corner without warning and suddenly he was surrounded by spiders seeking reassurance.

“ **Not much longer guys, I promise.** ” He’d said it so many times, he didn’t bother signing the words as he spoke. After he’d scratched each of their heads in turn, their anxiety began to ease, and they went back to looking miserable.

At least they’d given up on trying to climb the walls of the truck. The spiders were still struggling to adjust to their new proportions since their last molt.

Of course, that hadn’t stopped Webster from climbing out of his bedroom window while he was out on patrol last week. May noticed his absence before he could get very far. It was a small miracle Peter found him before he could start a public incident.

Peter was just thankful they’d held on until school broke for the summer.

The spiders didn’t seem fond of travelling by car. He didn’t think they were physically capable of getting motion sickness, but the confined space and unpredictable movements still made them skittish and uneasy. It probably didn’t help that they had to leave so early either. From what he could tell, the spiders shared Peter’s belief that people shouldn’t be up before the sun.

Shelby crawled towards him as if it took an immense amount of effort and draped herself over his leg.

And to think, he’d once considered spiders incapable of being dramatic.

“Are you sure I shouldn’t stay? I could get a week off work if I-”

“May, the last time you switched shifts it was for a weekend and you spent almost a month making up for it. I’ll be okay at the Compound, I promise…it’ll be just like that year I went to summer camp.”

“You hated summer camp,” she said flatly. “You lost your glasses after someone threw you into a lake. I had to pick you up early because you fell in a ditch trying to find your way back to the campsite without them and fractured your wrist.”

He winced at the memory. “Okay, not that summer camp specifically. Like, a more fun superhero-y summer camp.”

May looked unimpressed.

“It’ll be fun!” he insisted. “The spiders are going to love it, all that space to run around. It’s really pretty out there too, I swear.”

A few of the others followed Shelby’s example and curled up around him the way they did when they were about to watch a movie. Ed entrusted him with his Thor plushie while he curled up against his side.

Peter patted the spider’s head affectionately, making a mental note to thank Tony again when he saw him. Those plushies really had turned out to be life savers. They were big enough for the spiders to hold them, but no so large that they got skewered on their fangs (as had been the unfortunate fate of some of the older toys after their second to last molt).

Peter didn’t like to think that way, but he still hoped that the toys would score them some points with the remaining Avengers at the Compound. He knew most of them were considered Rogues now, but Tony had mentioned in passing that there were still a few of them living in the Compound full-time. It was hard not to be worried about them getting on with the spiders. Would Tony take back his offer if one of the Avengers outright refused to live in the same building as fifteen giant spiders?

He tried to focus on the excitement of living in Stark Tower for over two whole months (Ned lost it when he broke the news). The only real downside was…two whole months without being Spider-Man.

Any other time he would have pushed that point, but supers were pretty controversial because of The Leak™ and May was worried enough as it was.

Besides, the idea of leaving the spiders alone in the Compound was anxiety inducing. He wasn’t sure how he’d cope when school started up again.

Sensing his distress, the other spiders gravitated towards him, tapping their legs and waving their pedipalps as they tried to get his attention.

Focusing on them never failed to make him feel better. Something about their wide, curious eyes and fluffy legs made his worries seem distant and unimportant. The Avengers had to love them. It was impossible not to.

“Oscar,” Peter warned, “ **stay away from the bags.** ”

The spider paused but either didn’t understand or chose to ignore him. He repeated the words in sign language a few more times until the spider relented and left his backpack alone.

He’d been forced to fend off at least a dozen assaults on his stuff from various spiders throughout the packing process. He wasn’t sure why, but whenever he placed something in a bag they seemed to think this meant they should then take said item out of the bag. He’d hoped that they’d leave his luggage be once they were in the truck, but no such luck as of yet. The only one he trusted within three feet of his suitcase was Martha. For some reason, she wasn’t the least bit interested in its contents and preferred to perch precariously on top of it.

The truck turned another corner and came to a stop. He heard people walking around and talking over the din of a low mechanical whir. When the truck started moving again, the road was a lot smoother.

“That was probably the check point,” Peter said. “It should just be another few minutes.”  
Sure enough the truck soon stopped, for good this time. The driver hit the side of the truck twice and Peter gave May a tense smile.

“We’re good to go Happy!” he shouted back. The spiders jerked back in surprise when the door opened, flooding the enclosed space with natural light.

“Jesus,” the head of security said. “You weren’t kidding when you said they’d grown.”

“You don’t think Tony will mind, do you?”

The billionaire had said repeatedly that he’d continue to house them regardless of how big they got, but the offer still seemed too good to be true.

“Nah, the rooms he’s got reserved should give them more than enough space. He’s been talking about remodelling too, don’t tell him I told you this, but he’s been working on plans for a new wing. One built with these guys in mind.”

Peter’s eyes went wide. “He doesn’t have to do that! Really, they’ll be okay, just letting them stay here is-”

“Kid, believe me, Tony never settles for the bare minimum. Things have been pretty quiet around here since most of the Avengers became fugitives and Tony- Well, let’s just say that Tony doesn’t really understand the word ‘idle’. Besides, the spiders staying here is a long-term solution. We’re not going to leave them out in the parking garage if they get too big to fit through the door.”

Peter opened his mouth to argue but Happy shut him down with a look. So, instead, he just said: “thanks.”

“Anytime kid.”

Peter didn’t have to turn around to know that Webster had crept towards the doors, Happy’s expression said it all.

“I promise they’re not that bad.” As if to prove his point, Webster tapped his leg in a silent request for reassurance. Peter happily obliged and the spider vanished back inside the truck only to reappear a moment later with his Spider-Man plushie.

“ **You excited**?” he asked the spider. Signing out questions as he voiced them was second nature by this point, but he didn’t really expect the spider to respond. Emotions were a difficult concept to link to specific words.

The spider stared at him for a moment before slowing rotating on the spot to focus on Happy.

“Is he…okay?” Happy asked.

“He hasn’t officially met you yet. This is what he does when he meets new people…Or, at least, it’s what he did when he met Tony. May and Ned have been around since before they fully developed into slings, so I’m not really sure if they count.”

“Slings?”

“Baby spiders,” Peter explained. He reached down and scratched Webster’s head affectionately. Well, maybe ‘reached down’ was a bit of a stretch, the spider was tall enough that his head just about brushed Peter’s fingertips when he stood beside him.

“Just…think of them as really big dogs.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

Webster crept closer to the edge of the truck, staring down at the grass below. When he didn’t go for it, Peter hopped onto the ground below.

 **Up** , he signed, extending his arms as if expecting a hug. The spider happily accepted the offer, even if he was getting a bit big to carry around. With the spider curled around his torso, Peter sat down on the grass and waited for Webster to let go and start exploring the great outdoors on his own terms.

May soon came to join them, taking the time to greet Happy before sitting down on the back of the truck. Slowly, the other spiders began to venture closer to the doors but not one felt confident enough to venture onto the grass.

Happy watched them as they tried to gather their courage, and the spiders watched him back with their large, curious eyes. He wasn’t as panicked as he had been when he’d met Anthony which was good. Peter supposed having some forewarning helped, as did having a few months to adjust to the idea. He’d been texting Happy photos of them every few weeks in the hopes that it would help him overcome his fears. He took loads of pictures of them, but he took care to only choose the most adorable, innocent looking images. Once or twice he’d even used snap chat filters to really hit it home.

Happy was yet to ask Peter to stop, and once or twice he’d even commented that they sometimes didn’t look that terrifying. That was progress right there, and if Happy could learn to not fear them then anyone could.

Peter was pulled from his thoughts when Webster started to uncurl his legs. He wriggled and shifted, clearly irritated when he found that he couldn’t prod at the grass from the safety of Peter’s arms.

Sighing, he pried the spider off of his torso and placed him on his lap. The spider ran his front two legs along the ground, getting a feel for the texture without actually walking on it.

“Alright, I’m going to let Tony know you’re here before they work up the courage to chase after me.”

“It was nice to finally meet you, Happy,” May said with a genuine smile.

“You too, Mrs Parker. Remember to use that number, Tony’s drivers are at your disposal any time you want to visit.”

“Thanks, Happy!” Peter piped in. “I’ll text you to let you know how they get on.”

Happy spun on his heel and started walking at a brisk pace towards the main building, waving over his shoulder as he went.

“He seemed…tense,” May said once he was out of hearing range.

“He’s trying! Really, he is. He can’t help it that he doesn’t like spiders.”

May didn’t seem convinced, so Peter changed his approach.

“You’re saying you wouldn’t have had more trouble adjusting if I’d brought home fifteen giant maggots instead?”

May made a face, “alright, you make a good point…God, I’m never going to get that visual out of my head. The mouths.”

“Well, theoretically they’d pass the maggot stage of their life cycle pretty fast and just turn into giant flies.”

“That’s even worse,” May said, looking genuinely mortified by the prospect. “It would be like in that movie The Fly except they’d be bigger and there would be fifteen of them!”

They both shuddered at the thought. Webster chose that moment to distract them both by taking a cautious step onto the grass. The spider waited a moment to see if anything would happen before he started to wander away from the truck.

Peter stood up and dusted off his jeans, as soon as he was within reach the other spiders started tugging on his shirt. He wasn’t sure why they insisted on being lifted off of the truck when they had no issue with launching themselves off of his top bunk on a regular basis, but he complied and helped them all onto the ground.

Their first steps were hesitant, with a few of them clinging to Peter’s arms and refusing to let go for several minutes.

By the time Tony showed up, the spiders were scuttling around the expanse of grass, prodding flowers with their fluffy feet and chasing insects that happened to pass by.

“Mrs Parker, Peter, good to see everyone got here alright,” he said with the casualness of someone about to order a latte on their day off. Not at all like someone who’d just invited over a dozen giant spiders to overrun their house.

“They bounced back from the journey pretty fast,” May responded curtly. This was the first time they’d really spoken since he first showed up in their apartment. She’d assured Peter that she was over the whole Germany thing, but he knew she was still harbouring a grudge.

“Good.”

Knowing an awkward silence was sure to follow, Peter wracked his brain for talking points but was saved the trouble when Anthony caught sight of Tony and raced across the field so fast he practically tripped over his own legs in the process.

“Hey there, little guy,” Tony greeted as the spider skidded to a halt. Anthony dropped his Iron Man toy at Tony’s feet before racing back towards the truck. The billionaire blinked in surprise. “Well, I guess some things haven’t changed.”

Peter gave an apologetic shrug. A moment later, the spider emerged from the truck holding his second Iron Man toy, the one Tony had bought for him, and placed it on the ground next to the first.

Tony checked with Peter before he patted the spider on the head. The spider went very, very still as if concerned that the slightest movement would scare Tony off. Without warning, he bolted back towards the truck and left Tony behind.

“He’s a little on the strange side, isn’t he?”

May looked like she wanted to protest on principle, but even she couldn’t construct a decent argument in Anthony’s defence.

“Hey, we’ve all got a pretty skewed standard of ‘strange’,” was all Peter could say.

“Can’t argue with that."

xxx

The other fourteen spiders didn’t wander very far (Tony assured him that he had a low grade forcefield setup as if it wasn’t the coolest thing Peter had ever heard), but it still took a while for Peter to lure them away from the wonders of the great outdoors. Twice he had to scold the spiders for throwing up threat postures at one another while chasing insects and small birds. Thankfully, they weren’t very aggressive by nature and never attempted to actually fight one another. They also never actually, you know, caught anything.

Of course, it also made him a little sad since he knew that the scientists had grown them to be compliant, both to 'reduce the risk of injury when they were running tests and to prevent them from damaging other subjects’. At least, that's what the files said.

A part of him resented the idea of the scientists influencing them in any way, but then he remembered that without the scientists they wouldn’t actually exist.

Sometimes he forget that they were clones.

Eventually, he managed to entice the spiders into following them into the building. He knew they would probably disperse again as soon as they were inside, but Tony assured him that FRIDAY would steer them away from danger.

The spiders took to the Compound almost immediately. A few stayed with the group as Tony gave them the tour, but most raced off to explore on their own terms as soon as they overcame their initial nervousness.

The Compound was huge. He’d seen it from the outside, of course, and he’d gone through the R&D building after the whole Vulture incident, but he’d never realised how much of it was pure living space. They had an entire wing to explore, complete with a private kitchen. It opened out on to the living room which Peter and May agreed seemed bigger than their entire apartment.

Peter’s main concern was still someone seeing them and blabbing, but Tony assured him that most everything related to Stark Industries took place at their central locations.

"We have minimal staff on-sight and all of them have been brought on specifically to deal with Avengers business. Not only are they thoroughly screened on a regular basis, they've all signed extensive confidentiality contracts. Believe me, kid. While, I’ll admit, your situation is strange even by our standards, it doesn’t hold a candle to some of the information these guys are privy too. If they were going to spill the beans on us they would have done it a long time ago.”

  
The idea still worried him, but he knew there were going to be extensive risks no matter where the spiders were.

Tony got a call about twenty minutes into the tour. He dismissed it without hesitation, but it sounded pretty important and Peter felt bad about taking up too much of his time. Even May backed him up when he tried to convince Tony that he didn’t have to conduct the entire tour himself and they could just wander around on their own until he finished his call. The billionaire seemed reluctant at first, but he did relent in the end.

Tony was almost as stubborn as Peter, the fact that he gave in at all spoke volumes.

He guessed Stark Industries was under a lot of pressure right now. Ever since someone leaked all those government files, the media had been crying for Stark’s blood. Well, really they were condemning anyone so much as rumoured to be involved in the on going mistreatment of enhanced individuals. It was the hottest topic of debate (and stay tuned for the argument on everybody's mind: should the Geneva Convention protect the Hulk?).

The news outlets favoured the footage taken straight from the so called ‘Raft’. The video of Captain America being denied an attorney played on loop for almost two days.

Yeah, Mr Stark definitely had more important things to worry about right now.

And that was how Peter and May ended up wandering around the Compound with FRIDAY as their guide.

“They have a pool,” May said flatly as they stared out over the observation deck.

“Hey, FRIDAY? Do you think you could keep the spiders out of this room?” Peter asked.

The thought of the spiders falling in and flailing helplessly-

He shuddered.

“Of course, Mr Parker,” FRIDAY said almost fondly. “I’ll make sure this area is off limits.”

“They have a pool.”

“You said that already.”

“Yes but that’s because they have a _pool_. You reckon Captain America uses it?” she asked, still stunned by the discovery.

“I dunno. I mean, he probably doesn’t use it anymore since he doesn’t live here, but he may have done before.”

“That’s a thought.”

“Aunt May!” Peter said, mortified. “Don’t say it like that!”

“Like what?” she asked innocently.

He shot her a look, but before he could reply Charlotte tugged on his pant leg to indicate she wanted to move on. He scratched her head but resisted the urge to pick her up and carry her like he used to. May recommended he get them used to walking on their own feet in case they really did grow to be truck-sized. ‘I know you’re super strong, tough guy, but if they’re three times your size and think they can jump into their arms like they do now, it’s going to be a problem. I know it sucks, but it’s better to wean them off slowly.’

“Let’s just check out the rest of the facilities,” Peter said with a sigh. They found the other spiders already exploring the training rooms, at least eight of them were climbing the equipment and walls of the largest room. Those that chose to remain on the ground were staring out of the floor to ceiling window.

He wasn’t sure if they were watching for anything in particular, or if they were just generally in awe of the outside world. He had to admit, he found it hard to look away from the sight of the grassy stretch melting into woodland. He’d been to parks and stuff, but none of them had created the illusion that he was separated from the rest of the world.

Beyond the clearing, the trees were untouched and dense. They’d grown so close together, their leaves were now intrinsically linked, preventing natural light from filtering through the canopy. It created the impression that a vast shadow loomed over the grounds.

Peter would have sworn New York was brighter at midnight than the forest was in broad daylight.

Anna wandered over to him and he pulled her into a hug. The spider seemed confused but tolerated his affection nonetheless.

Suddenly, all of those stupid horror movies that MJ liked to laugh at about people being stranded in the middle of the woods didn’t seem so ludicrous.

“You doing okay?” May asked, her voice soft and careful as if to avoid startling him.

“Fine. Just…thinking about them living here.” If he strained his eyes, he almost convinced himself he could see the light warp where it passed through the forcefield.

May sat down beside him and Ed, Shelby, Anna, and Charlotte decided to join them. The spiders always seemed to think that if they were sitting on the floor (and thus at eye height) they were obliged to give them attention.

“Are you thinking about anything in particular?”

He shrugged, focusing on appeasing the attention seeking spiders. They practically purred in response.

“You know that moving them here was for the best, right?” she asked.

“I know…I felt bad about keeping them in the apartment but-” he struggled to find the words he was reaching for. “Is this it for them?”

May frowned. “What do you mean by ‘it’?”

All of his frustration bubbled to the surface and as soon as he started talking, he found he couldn’t stop.

“I mean, when I first brought them home…it always felt like things would be temporary. They’d only live in the tub until I could find a better solution. Then, after you found out, they were allowed to roam around the apartment which was a big improvement, but we knew that eventually we’d have to come up with a better alternative when they got bigger and needed more space. And now they’re here and they have loads more space and it’s amazing…but it feels like there won’t be another solution after this. Like, with the tub and the apartment we were trying to figure out how to make it better and now it’s just sort of…best?”

He sighed, he really wasn’t saying this right. “I just…I hate that they’ll probably live the rest of their lives in a top secret Compound in the middle of the woods. There’s a lot of cool stuff out there I want them to experience, you know?”

He expected May to do that thing where she does her best to reassure him that he’s not alone, it was normally her response when he rambled nonsensically about something. Instead, she looked him in the eye and told him she got it.

“If it was you instead of them, I would lose it,” she said and just like that, she made it make sense. They stared out the window at the bright, sunny stretch of grass before them and the contrasting shadowy wall of trees beyond.

“Ned would love it here,” Peter said without thinking.

“You think he’d be able to cope?”

“Probably not, he freaked out when I told him I was staying here for the summer.”

Their conversations remained light hearted, steering clear of big topics in favour of light hearted debates over movies and who would win in a fight (‘May, it has to be the Hulk. No question.’ ‘Are you kidding? Have you seen Thor’s arms?’ ‘Okay, but Vision or Scarlet Witch?’ ‘Scarlet Witch, obviously. I don’t care if he can shoot lasers, telekinesis wins every time. It’s the sneakiness that’s gets ‘em. You can’t be subtle when you’re shooting lasers out of your forehead.’)

By the time Tony caught up with them, eight of the spiders were snoozing peacefully while Peter and May bickered over which was the best Indiana Jones movie.

“It must have been all the excitement,” Peter said as he looked around the room. Those that were still clinging to consciousness were visibly drooping.

They ended up coaxing the spiders into following them to the living room. There were a number of absurdly large couches which suited the spiders well. There’d never been enough room for all of them to sit on the couch back home, lately Peter had started sitting on the floor when they were watching movies to avoid starting fights over who got to sit next to him.

He collapsed into the middle couch opposite the TV and before May or Tony could move to join him, the spiders swarmed it with a sudden burst of energy. They clambered over one another as they tried to get comfortable, and within about a minute the once empty space was overflowing with spiders.

There wasn’t quite enough space for all of them, but those who didn’t fit perched on the back of the couch or nestled on the floor directly in front of it. Even Webster joined them for once. The little guy seemed to be following Peter’s lead in this alien environment, but no doubt he’d go back to roaming the halls and keeping an eye out for potential intruders when he got used to the place.

Peter stifled a yawn, the lack of sleep catching up with him. He was vaguely aware that someone had turned the TV on, but he couldn’t for the life of him focus on it. He tried to remember the last time he slept a solid eight hours and found himself drawing a blank. The last week had been a bit of a blur.

Despite his best efforts, he felt his eyelids begin to droop. He wasn’t actually falling asleep, of course. He was just…just…

xxx

It didn’t seem to matter how many channels and streaming websites they had access to, finding something to watch would always be a challenge. Normally May would just leave the news on in the background if she couldn’t find something, but Tony Stark was often the subject of the stories she only half-listened to. Somehow, she doubted he’d want to listen to debates over whether Captain America had been in the right.

Peter was focused on his spiders, oblivious to the awkward silence that had descended upon the room.

“They seem to watch a lot of TV,” Tony said, unphased by the uncomfortable tension.  
“That they do.” May was tempted to just let the conversation die again but Peter made her promise she’d make an effort before they left the apartment. “Pete’s pretty protective of them. They get upset easily.”

Tony raised an eyebrow. “That so?”

 _They may look like animals but you should know better by now._   _Of course they get upset._

Instead of voicing her opinions aloud, she forced a smile and nodded. “They still won’t watch the rest of the Lion King.”

That at least got a snort. She couldn’t help but notice that he looked a lot more…human. Lounging on a couch flicking through TV channels, it seemed too mundane an activity for the great Tony Stark to indulge in. Surely, he had robots for that sort of thing for him.

“Hey, Peter. You shown them Star Wars yet?”

When Peter didn’t reply, May glanced over to find him fast asleep, the spiders piled on top of him the way they used to when they were smaller. There wasn’t enough space for them all to lie on Peter, so they’d resorted to sprawling out on top of one another like puppies.

Logically, she knew it should be disturbing. When she watched those god awful movies monster movies about giant spiders as a kid, she'd always routed for the two dimensional protagonists to destroy the retched beasts.

That’s what you’re supposed to do when there are giant spiders running around, right?

And yet, the scene before her conflicted with every opinion she’d ever had on spiders.

Seeing them curled around her nephew, both seeking comfort and wanting to protect him, it was impossible not to love them. It seemed almost…natural.

God how had this become their lives? Things hadn’t always been this weird, right?

“This happen a lot?” Tony asked. May expected him to be mocking, or at the very least amused. But his expression was solemn, thoughtful. If she tilted her head and squinted, it almost looked like he was fond of Peter.

Then she remembered that he’d given her nephew a weapon of potential mass destruction and made him believe he could fight the likes of Captain America before bailing when Peter found himself in way over his head.

“He hasn’t been sleeping well since that guy dressed as a goblin beat the shit out of him,” she said bluntly.

Needless to say, that brought the conversation to an abrupt halt.

“I’m going to give you my personal contact number,” Tony said without warning. She looked up at him in surprise.

“I meant to do it before, back when you first found out about his after school activities. You shouldn’t need it since his suit has a homing beacon that activates when he’s in danger but seeing as how the kid’s somehow managed to disable it twice now I’m not taking any chances. Mind you, with the upgrades I made to that thing, it should be able to survive anything short of a nuclear bomb.”

“Thanks.” That single word wasn’t nearly enough, but May really wasn’t sure what else she should say. She couldn’t help but think back to what Peter told her before they left the apartment.

_'Promise me you’ll at least try to get along with him, May. He’s not so bad when you get to know him! Plus, he’s doing us a really big favour, letting the spiders crash at his place indefinitely. Just…try? Please?'_

Internally sighing, she wracked her brains for other topics of conversation. This had all seemed easy when he’d stopped by the apartment.

“You should ask Peter to give you the Cinematic Blacklist,” she blurted out. She regretted it almost as soon as she said it, but it was the first thing that came to mind. He looked at her with a mixture of confusion and amusement. She took a moment to compose herself before explaining.

“You were asking about them watching TV before, Peter made a list of movies and shows that seem okay on the surface but will probably freak them out. He went through this spell of trying to find them decent role models since they love watching TV and quickly realised that most spiders in movies die. Some tragically, some violently. One time there was a spider in the bathroom and they got really defensive when I tried to move it because they thought I’d hurt it, so it makes sense that seeing a movie’s protagonist murder one would be upsetting.”

She took in a breath and waited for him to laugh it off.

“You happen to remember any of the movies off the top of your head?"

“Uh, Harry Potter? Most of them are fine, but we make it a general rule not to watch any of them around the spiders. Lord of the Rings too. Charlotte’s Web for obvious reasons. In general we try to stick to movies for general audiences. Nothing with a lot of murder, especially if it contains the murder of a dog. They really like dogs, probably because Peter’s always showing them animal videos on YouTube.”

“Hey FRIDAY? Do me a favour and make sure the spiders aren’t exposed to anything meeting those criteria. Let Peter add to it whenever he wants.”

“You got it, boss,” the AI responded cheerfully.

May didn’t like Tony by any means, but she was beginning to come around to the idea that he may not be completely heartless.

Maybe.

xxx

 _Peter_.

He was vaguely aware of the spiders around him, the weight pressing down on him chest and the hairs on their fluffy legs tickling his skin. The room seemed too bright through his eyelids, but he wasn’t ready to wake up yet.

“ _Peter_ ,” the voice repeated, and he was reminded of what had woken him in the first place. He should probably be paying attention, whatever it was could be important…but whatever it was could wait another ten minutes.

“Peter!”

He jolted awake, spooking several spiders in the process. They expressed their confusion to him, conveying a vague sense of questioning. He blinked until the room no longer seemed blurry and found May smiling at him with an amused expression.

No danger, he signed clumsily. A few of them understood it immediately, others he had to repeat it to a few times. With the crisis averted, the majority of the spiders started stretching out their legs and moving off of him. Half a dozen of them didn’t seem to like this idea very much and snuggled closer instead.

“How’d you sleep?” May asked.

“I- wha’?” Peter asked, his brain still foggy. He couldn’t tell how long he’d been asleep, but Tony had left the room at some point and May was holding a cup of tea in her hands, so it had probably been a while. “Why didn’t you wake me sooner?”

“You didn’t miss much. Besides, you all needed it by the looks of things.”

He couldn’t help but feel embarrassed about falling asleep in Tony Stark’s living room, but he had to admit he felt a lot better.

“Where’s Tony?”

“Miss Potts called, she needed him to look over some plans for something. I don’t know the details.”

He made to stand up before remembering that Meg, Anthony, Violet, Crepsley, Luna, and Charlotte were still using him as a pillow. He settled for sitting up as straight as they would allow, ignoring their conveyed irritation when he moved. The other spiders didn’t venture far, content to explore the open plan kitchen.

The rest of the day went by way too fast but also too slow, if that was possible. Tony ducked in and out a lot, Stark Industries were in the process of constructing a new building in Chicago and he was heavily involved in the layout.

The spiders seemed to be struggling with the experience. Their overconfidence faded when they continued the tour and the sheer size of the place became apparent. Even Webster and Natalie stayed within eyesight, clutching their plushies tighter than usual. The more time passed, the worse it seemed to get. They started walking closer and closer together until they were practically tripping over one another.

“What’s got them so spooked?” May asked.

“I think they’re…overwhelmed?” Peter said, crouching down to remove the height distance. Martha crept forward and planted a leg firmly on his shoulder as if afraid he’d disappear. He scratched her head, hoping it would serve to reassure her somewhat but for once it didn’t seem to help. “Let’s get them back to the living area.”

They fell asleep again soon after and Peter was pretty sure he’d end up with frown lines if they kept this up.

The rest of the day they continued to alternate between excited curiosity and meek nervousness. It was making his head spin a little. They reached their lowest point when the spiders tugged at his clothes until he followed them back outside to the exact spot the truck had dropped them off. The message seemed pretty clear to Peter: ‘summon the thing that brought us here, so it can take us back’.

Trying to explain to fifteen spiders that they’re not going back to the only place they’ve ever known? Not fun. Trying to explain in a way the spiders can understand when their grasp of the English language consisted of odd words in sign language?

Double not fun.

They spent the rest of the day curled up on the couch, watching all of their favourite movies back to back in the hopes that the familiarity would cheer them up. It worked to an extent, but they still freaked out whenever May or Peter tried to leave the room.

They indulged the spiders until around ten o’clock that night, at which point they had to start encouraging the spiders to follow them back to Peter’s new room. Navigating the halls was a nightmare, but they got there eventually.

They were in guest rooms for the moment, even though Tony had a permanent one set up for Peter. This was in part so they could be closer to Aunt May, but also because they’d agreed to hold off on introducing the spiders to the other Avengers for the time being, and Vision was apparently bad with boundaries.

May had to stay with them while Peter changed and brushed his teeth. When he came back, Anthony, Violet, and Charlotte seemed to be shivering. May hadn’t been able to figure out why, but Peter with all of his enhanced senses recognised that they were hyperventilating. It took him close to twenty minutes to calm the spiders down enough to sleep, by which point he himself felt exhausted.

The spiders grew too large for the bunk bed a long time ago, but the king sized bed in the guest rooms was big enough to hold them all if they squished together.

He wondered if they were human enough to go through an angsty teen phase. He couldn’t help but smile at the mental image of the spiders painting their toes with black nail polish and awkwardly manoeuvring to slam doors behind them as they stormed out of rooms.

He nudged the spiders out of the way, so he could slip under the covers and they nestled on top of him, still jittery but happier than they were before.

“You think they’re going to be okay?” May asked.

“Yeah,” he said. It didn’t look good now, but he was nothing if not stubborn. “We’ll figure this out.”

xxx

The next day was a rollercoaster of emotions for the spiders. Peter spent most of the day perfecting a system for reassuring them.

He’d gotten it down to a science, identifying which ones were due to break down and when. Thankfully, they were yet to lose it all at once. Three or four he could deal with at the same time, but fifteen? That’d be a little trickier.

May was a saint through the whole thing, helping Peter keep track of them whenever someone needed his attention. It was exhausting but predictable. They hadn’t expected them to immediately adapt to the situation, they’d never even seen the sky before with the exception of the occasional glimpse through the window in the living room. Suddenly having several acres to run around on was always going to take some getting used to. He’d just kind of hoped they’d be overexcited rather than overwhelmed.

“Are you sure I shouldn’t take time off work? Even a few more days, you shouldn’t have to introduce them to the Avengers all by yourself and-”

“May,” Peter said, doing his best to be reassuring. “It’s going to be okay. Tony will be there to make sure they don’t-”

“I’m not worried about them, I’m worried about you.”

“Well, I’ll be fine too. I promise I’ll start making trips back to the city when they get settled in, and in the meantime there’s loads to do here on the Compound. It’ll be good for me, fresh air and all that.”

She shot him a teasing smile and it reminded him of the time he’d asked May to explain a joke in one of her shows when he was eleven. It made him feel a lot younger than he actually was, once again missing the punchline. The feeling was made even worse when she ruffled his hair.

“You’re growing up too fast,” she complained.  
Before he could reply, Oscar distracted him by climbing into his lap and curling up like a dog, fluffy legs tucked in close to his body.

“He’s not panicking,” Peter assured May when he caught sight of her concerned expression. “He’s just worn himself out with all the running around.”

May sighed. “Alright, I give up, I’m never going to read the room like you do.”

“You will! You just need more time to get used to it.”

“I think you’re underestimating yourself, you sure your skillset doesn’t include spider-y parenting skills?”

He shrugged, scratching Oscar’s head as he did so. “Their mannerisms aren’t so different from a human’s, they just express them differently because they don’t have hands…or faces.”

May looked doubtful. “Whatever you say.”  
Later that night, Happy showed up to drive May back to the city. To Peter’s surprise, he claimed to have volunteered for the job.

“I still owe you kid,” Happy said without taking his eyes off Webster. “I’ll be damned if I don’t at least try to tolerate your spider children.”

He paled when Charlotte raced by, Violet close behind (Peter had been trying to teach them ‘tag’ for the better part of the morning, needless to say he hadn’t been very successful but they were still trying bless them). Apparently, he didn’t like the reminder that they could outrun him with little to no effort.

“I can’t guarantee anything at this point.”

“Thanks Happy,” Peter said with genuine sincerity. “It means a lot that you’re trying.”

Happy adopted a stoic expression as he nodded at Natalie and climbed into the driver’s seat of his Audi. Peter appreciated having a moment alone to say goodbye to May.

“Maybe I could at least stay tonight, I could leave early tomorrow morning instead.”

“We’ve been over this,” Peter reminded her. “You’d have to get up at, like, four in the morning to get to work on time. Besides, it’ll be even harder on them if they wake up to find you gone.”

For a second, Peter thought she would insist on staying anyway, but even May couldn’t fight the  facts. She slumped in defeat and pulled Peter into a hug.

“I’m going to call you every day and you’re going to pick up your phone, do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The spiders conveyed their confusion as they observed the tear-y eyed exchange. Their confusion gave way to panic when May got into the car and it started to drive off. A few chased after it before dropping away when they realised Peter hadn’t moved. Their indecision fed his doubt, but he did his best to be strong.

“It’ll be alright,” he assured them, saying the words aloud in addition to signing them for his own benefit. “We’ve got this.”

xxx

With Aunt May gone, they were even more anxious than usual and being in a wide open space was no longer a viable option. They were spiders after all, in the face of uncertainty they craved an enclosed space.

Peter wasn’t really sure how to create a space like that, but his room seemed like a good place to start. He didn’t really want to mess up one of the guest rooms, and getting the spiders used to his permanent room seemed like a good idea. It was pretty sparse for the moment, the only decoration to speak of being an Empire Strikes Back poster over his bed, no doubt there by Tony’s personal request.

The spiders crowded inside, partly because the enclosed space was preferable to the vast expanse that was the Compound but mostly because they weren’t willing to let Peter out of their sight.

Once inside the room, Peter found himself at a loss. It wasn’t enough, he knew that much. The bed was flush to the floor meaning they couldn’t flatten themselves against the floor and slide under it like they did with his bed back home. He had a walk in closet (and made a mental note to thank Tony for that particular feature because it was awesome), but they couldn’t all fit inside. He spent some time routing through the drawers, looking for inspiration rather than a physical solution.

An idea quite literally hit him on the head when Shelby accidentally knocked a bundle of spare blankets off the shelf in the closet.

He’d never been very good at making forts, but it was the best idea he’d come up with so far.

xxx

Vision had been, shall we say, lectured on the concept of privacy and boundaries more than once, but he found the topic more complex than his teammates seemed to.

Certain rooms were off limits to him, that much he understood and respected. He made it a general rule to avoid bathrooms as he didn’t need to use them anyway. The labs were off limits except for when Mr Stark himself invited him inside, avoiding them was…courteous. The rooms were a place of significance to Tony, an escape if you will. Passing through whenever he pleased seemed akin to trespassing.

His understanding of their importance was likely something he’d picked up from JARVIS…but personal rooms were a more complicated matter. The rules seemed to change based on a number of factors Vision couldn’t possibly predict.

Once he happened to pass through Captain Roger’s room to find most of the team in light hearted conversation and they invited him to join them. Another time, he phased through the wall of what he’d assumed was an empty conference room to find Miss Potts in conversation with Mr Stark and been subjected to a lengthy conversation on the importance of privacy.

Ever since the disagreement over the Accords, the Compound was…empty. He’d never imagined it possible to feel isolated in a permanently occupied building, but even Vision could feel the absence of his fellow Avengers.

One in particular stood out to him.  
Another thing he couldn’t ignore was Rhodey’s recent shift in behaviour.

Colonel Rhodes did, in theory, still live in the Compound but rarely did he stay there for more than a few days at a time. This month, it was a retreat suggested to him by his physiotherapist. Last month, it had been to catch up with his family, the month before he’d been driven by a simple desire to ‘clear his head’.

Vision couldn’t help but wonder if he was truly being drawn to places outside, or if he was instead being chased away from the Compound by the memories it held. Sometimes, he couldn’t help but wonder if Vision himself served as a catalyst for these spontaneous decisions. Perhaps he was a reminder of the accident, or maybe Colonel Rhodes held an unspoken resentment towards him for his involvement.

Regardless, since Germany Vision had been free to phase through as many walls as he wished, and no one said a word.

Unfortunately, the cons eclipsed the limited benefits.

A few days ago, Mr Stark interrupted his daily routine of wandering the Compound like a spectre in search of something to fill the vast void. His announcement was intriguing to say the least.

“We’re going to have some guests arriving in a few days’ time…No, not new recruits. Think of them more as refugees. Look, it’s pretty complicated but I’ll explain everything when they’re ready to actually meet you. The thing is, they’re not really used to being around new people, so we’re not really sure how they’ll respond to- Well, you yet. I was kind of hoping you’d give them some time to settle in first. Just a few days.”

Vision found the prospect of new people exciting. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever been excited before, but he was confident in the label he’d placed upon the emotion. At the very least, they’d prove to be a distraction.

The mystery of their presence in the Compound was in of itself enough to occupy him. What possible reason could Mr Stark have for inviting them here? He had real estate all across the world, both properties owned by himself and ones he controlled through Stark Industries. If they were civilians, why bring them to the Avengers’ headquarters?

He came up with several hundred possibilities (several thousand if he widened the criteria beyond ‘probable explanations’). Despite his curiosity, he complied without question when Mr Stark requested he spend the day in the R&D building to allow the guests to tour the facilities.

Strangely, Mr Stark repurposed the security force fields to create a containment bubble around a segment of the main building and programmed it to activate when specific individuals approached it.

Every new development added to the mystery.

Vision wasn’t sure if he had many characteristics which could definitively be defined as ‘positive’.

He was honest, but he’d learned the hard way that people liked honesty in small doses. Loyalty is a difficult thing to define when those you pledge loyalty to are in constant conflict. He was respectful and polite, but he’d learned that it made him less approachable. Courage, generosity, reliability, and conscientiousness were all traits he theoretically possessed, but he didn’t feel he deserved the labels.

He had emotions, but they seemed to evolve over time. He’d never had reason to feel fear, therefore he could not be defined as brave. He had no concept of materialism, therefore could not be considered generous. Reliability and conscientiousness were pre-programmed traits, qualities of an android rather than a reflection of his personality.

One thing Vision did take credit for was his patience.

Despite what many seemed to think, Vision was capable of growing bored. Impatience, irritation, pessimism, jealousy, and even resentment were all feelings he could and did experience.

His patience was not something inherent in his being, it was a conscious struggle. He couldn’t help but feel something akin to pride over it.

So, when Vision agreed to be patient and wait for their guests to adjust, he meant it.

Even if he didn’t know the details, he understood that it was a delicate situation…but Mr Stark assured him that their guests had chosen to isolate themselves in the guest wing of the building, and he was therefore free to return to his rooms.

To the right of his rooms were spare quarters, as far as he was aware, no one had set foot inside them since the building's construction.

He was therefore surprised when he phased through the wall on his way to the living room and found the room not only occupied but full. The lone human in the room stared at him in mounting horror while the ten Labrador-sized spiders in view remained frozen.

It was…unexpected, but Vision was nothing if not adaptable. It took him a fraction of a second to process what he was seeing and decide how best to move forward.

“I apologise for intruding,” he said. He tilted his head as he took in the odd construction of blankets in the middle of the room. Four spiders emerged from the fort when he spoke, regarding him with curious eyes.

“May I be of any assistance?”

xxx

Vision quickly rose the ranks of Peter’s favourite superheroes in the hour that followed, and the spiders seemed to agree whole-heartedly. After the initial shock of seeing an android phase through the wall, they rushed forward to greet him. To the android’s credit, he didn’t so much as take a step back when the fifteen giant spiders barrelled towards him.

“I’m so sorry,” Peter gushed. “They’re really not used to meeting new people. This is pretty exciting for them.”

“How would you recommend I proceed?” Vision asked as the spiders investigated him.

“Um, maybe sit down? They like it when people are at eye height with them.”

He sat down without hesitation and Peter allowed himself a moment to take in the sight.

The android had forgone the battle gear and cape in favour of a black, high necked sweater with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. Meg was the first to move, practically climbing into Vision’s lap in her excitement to show off her plushie.

The android’s brow furrowed as he stared at the soft-toy representation of himself.

“That’s Meg,” Peter said, still not really sure how to respond to the situation. “She’s a pretty big fan of yours.”

“A fan?” Vision repeated as if it were a foreign concept. He glanced at the other spiders, eyes tracking their various plushies, before his gaze returned to Meg. “How…curious.”

The android seemed enthralled by the spiders. Whereas normally Peter would rush through their names, he took the time to introduce Vision to each of the spiders individually. Peter wouldn’t have thought an android could be determined, but this one was adamant that he would learn to identify the spiders and match them to their names. It was kind of sweet.

The spiders were collectively baffled by the android, but their bemusement manifested itself in very different ways. Benjamin, Violet, Shelby, Oscar, and Anna all seemed to have come to the same conclusion: Vision needed help.

It took Peter a while to link their behaviour with Vision’s unusual vibrations, but once he did their actions started to make sense.

When they prodded his torso and went very still, they were waiting for a heart beat or some other indication of life. When they found none, they scuttled back to Peter and tugged at his clothes in an attempt to get him to follow them back to Vision.

Edward, Bethany, and Luna refused to go anywhere near him, but didn’t really seem to consider him a threat. It was more like they expected him to keel over at any moment.

Then there were the spiders on the opposite end of the spectrum. Crepsley, Martha, Anthony, Meg, and Charlotte all seemed oblivious to the fact that Vision was an android. Meg in particular was positively smitten.

As for Natalie and Webster? Well, they were…Natalie and Webster.

Peter wasn’t sure how he went from consoling the spiders to building them a fort with a super-intelligent robot who happened to possess immense destructive power, but it happened. As it turned out, Vision was pretty good at building forts.

“I believe this would work better if we had additional materials,” Vision commented not long after Peter relented and started using his webs to secure the structure. “May I suggest we use the sheets from my rooms as well?”

“Yeah, that’d be great, Vision!”

The spiders fretted over his absence. As it turned out, a fort was exactly what the spiders needed. Already they were cramming themselves into the tent-like structure.

They’d accidentally torn down his first four attempts, but with Vision’s help it looked like this one may actually hold. Vision returned within a few minutes, arms full of sheets, and Meg raced out of the fort to greet him.

They spent the next hour transforming two thirds of Peter’s room into an enormous makeshift hide and the spiders were positively blissful.

Peter switched to an extra strength web formula he’d been working on (the fact that it didn’t dissolve had seemed like a disadvantage at the time) to help secure the whole project in place.

Overall, it was a pretty bizarre experience, but it was fun nonetheless. The spiders seemed to like Vision a lot once they got used to him. His movements were slow and predictable, his voice was soothing and stayed at the perfect volume. As a result, he seemed incapable of startling them.

When they realised he knew sign language, they abandoned any negative opinions they may have harboured. May had tried learning ASL, but she only knew a few odd words and couldn’t pick up on their responses (through no fault of her own, of course). As a result, their conversations were usually brief and one-sided.

Vision may not have been pre-programmed to interpret their responses, but he was in essence a computer. Unlike Aunt May, Ned, and Tony, he was capable of detecting the minute variations in body language and facial expression and everything Peter pointed out was recorded.

It was an exciting prospect for the spiders, and Peter couldn’t help but grin in the face of their enthusiasm. They were surprisingly sociable beings, it pained him that the few people they’d met couldn’t understand them. At least Vision would give them someone to communicate with besides Peter.

“Hey, do you think FRIDAY could learn to pick up on their cues?” he asked. Vision adopted a thoughtful expression.

“I do not see why not. If you like, I can share visual and audio files with the AI as I learn to better communicate with them.”

Peter’s eyes went wide. “You can do that?”

“Of course. This form was designed to interface with many forms of media. Once I earned a place on the team, Tony saw fit to grant me access to a number of his systems.”

"Well…thanks.”

The android went quiet as he continued to watch the spiders. It was kind of cool, Peter liked to think he could almost see the synthetic neurons firing in Vision’s head as he processed the countless fragments of information.

“So, if you can access different types of media…does that mean you're connected to the internet?"

“In a sense,” Vision replied.

“Huh, that must be weird.”

"As useful as it is, it can be disconcerting at times. People are…varied, often times contradictory. There’s a lot to sort through.”

“Yeah, you could say that,” Peter snorted. He was distracted by Ed when the spider crept out from under the fort and scaled the wall to prod the flat screen TV.

“Hey!” Peter all but yelped. “Ed, stop that! You’ll break it!”

He hastily repeated his words in sign language as he scrambled over to the spider. Ed had the decency to look guilty and requested Peter pick him up with a twitch of his pedipalps. Peter obliged and brought the spider back to the fort, only to find five others staring at him expectantly. He frowned, shifting Ed to free his hands.

**You want TV?**

The spiders signalled back with a resounding ‘yes’ and Peter sighed.

“Fascinating,” Vision said as he observed the interaction. Something about his inflection made Peter do a double take before a thought occurred to him.

“Hey, Vis…have you ever seen Star Trek?”

xxx

Tony Stark was a very busy man. Aside from constantly modifying his systems, updating his suits, sketching new designs, and blowing off government officials (which actually took a lot more time and effort than one might think), he also had a company he helped to run.

Okay, so he didn’t do a lot of the paperwork, he still had to attend board meetings and pitch ideas. His life was a lot easier now Pepper had finally convinced everyone that green energy was the way to go (because it had taken years to convince those last few stubborn shareholders who’d still been clinging to the idea of selling Iron Man suits to the military), but he still had to worry about keeping them interested.

It didn’t help that the public’s perception of Iron Man fluctuated on a daily basis.

He still felt bad about leaving the kid alone with his spider-children as often as he had to. Not that he could help much with all of…that.

Tony liked to think he had a broad skill set, but he was pretty sure babysitting giant spiders fell into a whole other category.

Regardless of his own reluctance, Tony knew the kid would need all the help he could get today. He’d been reading up on separation anxiety (mostly in humans and dogs because the spiders didn’t exactly come with a handbook) and it looked like things could get pretty ugly.

He drove into the city that morning for a meeting Pepper insisted he had to attend in person. Why a hologram wouldn’t suffice was beyond him, but he attended all the same and flew back to the Compound in one of his suits to save on time.

He was a little surprised when FRIDAY announced Peter was in his permanent room instead of the guest rooms, but Tony supposed it made sense.

If he’d been a little less busy and a little less sleep deprived, he would have remembered that Vision was back to roaming the main building. As it was, the thought didn’t even cross his mind.

He couldn’t help but check his watch as he made his was towards the living quarters. Pepper needed him to review and approve the blue prints for the new building by two, so he couldn’t stay for long. He was pretty sure he could buy a solid half hour if he upped his caffeine intake. Sure, he was already walking the line of what was considered healthy, but what was one more cup?

He turned the corner and swore as he almost tripped over one of the spiders. He took a step back and straightened his tie while the arachnid stared at him. He wasn’t even going to hazard a guess as to which spider this was, but the bold patterning on their abdomen said he was a male. His calm demeanor meant he was most likely _not_ Tony's namesake.

That only left…what? Five?

“Hey, FRIDAY? Do you know which spider this is?”

“I believe that’s Webster, boss,” and damn it if his AI didn’t sound smug.

“Should have guessed that one.”

The spider remained unimpressed.

Clearing his throat, Tony carefully side stepped around Webster and continued on his way. He tried to ignore it when the spider rotated on the spot to watch him.

Jesus, how did the kid do this on a regular basis?

He only ran into one other spider on his way to the kid’s room, a small female he didn’t realise was there until she dropped down from the ceiling directly in front of him, no doubt taking years off his life in the process.

He was a little more cautious after that.

The door to the kid’s room was open, probably to let the spiders wander in and out.

He couldn’t help but pause when he heard Vision’s voice drift into earshot.

“If the android is not capable of experiencing emotion, why does he display affection for the cat?” Vision inquired.

“I dunno, it’s part of the experience I guess. He wants to be human, right? Owning a pet is a big part of that.”

Vision paused.

“If I'm not mistaken, you don’t own a pet.”

“Nah, our apartment doesn’t allow them.”

“Yet you are human. In fact, studies indicate that a little over 30% of Americans live their lives completely pet-free.”

“Well, yeah.”

“And he is the only primary crew member who owns a cat,” Vision pressed. “So what leads him to believe that owning a cat will make him more human?”

“How am I supposed to know? You’re the android. If I’m being honest, I’m more of a dog person myself.”

Tony crept closer and almost snorted at the sight. The pair were sitting cross legged on the floor with a sheet hanging low over their heads. One of the spiders seemed to be using said sheet as a makeshift hammock, with four others crowding Peter and Vision.

At first glance, Tony thought those five were the only spiders in the room. When he allowed himself a moment to take in the sheer magnitude of their fort-like creation, he realised he was mistaken.

It was a great misshapen tangle of blankets, duvets, and sheets that took up most of the room. When he looked more closely, he realised the structure wasn’t a failed attempt at a fort but rather a series of interconnected burrows with entrances for the spiders to crawl in and out of. When he looked closely, he could make out the shadowy outlines of other spiders moving around inside. It was pretty impressive when he thought about it logistically.

The pair were angled away from him, eyes presumably fixed on the flat screen just out of view. Tony risked peeking around the door and suppressed a snort when he saw an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation playing. The whole setup made it look like a bizarre sci-fi themed slumber party.

Tony had offered up the Compound more on impulse than anything else. He wasn’t about to leave the kid stranded, not again, and letting the spider-children move in was an obvious solution. It wasn’t until this particular moment that he truly understood what he’d offered.

And Tony didn’t have a problem with that.


	2. The End of the Line

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well guys, it's been a blast but all good things must come to an end. I'd like to give a shout out to MangoSupreme, you've followed this fic from day one, always the first to respond with praises and encouraging words. *Tips hat*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter...really got away from me. I couldn't really find a good place to split it so I just figured I'd give you guys an extra long one...Longer than the entirety of the last fic in this series, in fact. Hope you all enjoy this final installment, consider it my Christmas present.

Peter groaned as the alarm on his phone screeched at him from the bedside table. He heard the spiders tap their feet against the walls to make their irritation known and scooped up the phone before any of them got the bright idea to run off with it again. With great reluctance he dragged himself out of bed and crawled towards the closet. Luna was perched on the little shelf at the top and waved her pedipalps in irritation as light flooded the once darkened space.

“Sorry girl,” he yawned as he searched for his stretchiest sweatpants and softest T-Shirt. He could already tell this was going to be a bad sensory day.

Peter made it halfway down the hall before remembering he had an ensuite and doubled back. The spiders were sluggish as they ventured out of their various hiding places. He felt a spike of pride when he realised the majority favoured the makeshift tunnel system. He also felt more than a little envious when they realised he was going about his normal routine and went back to sleep.

The bathroom was even fancier than the one in the guest quarters. It took him a solid five minutes to figure out how to turn on the shower, and an additional fifteen to figure out what all the features were. There was a _touch screen_ for god’s sake. And it didn’t just control the temperature, but also the water pressure and configuration (whatever the hell _that_ meant). Just when he thought it couldn’t get any better, he reached for a towel and found it so soft and fluffy he thought for sure he’d grabbed a blanket by mistake.

Being rich was awesome.

He changed into a pair of sweats and opened the door to let the spiders wander in while he brushed his teeth. A few checked in on him, presumably to ensure he hadn’t drowned in the shower, before retreating back into the room. Meg was the only one to stick around, not surprising given she was one of the few early risers in the group. When he left for the kitchen in search of something caffeinated, she followed dutifully at his heels while the rest stayed behind. He found Martha in the hall outside his room, Oscar perched on the back of the couch in the living room-kitchen combo room, Shelby dozing in the corner of the ceiling, and surprisingly enough he noticed Ed following him in his peripheral vision. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen the spider up and about this early.

“ **Morning** ,” he said/clumsily signed as he stumbled into the kitchen. After a few minutes of searching through the countless cupboards, he managed to locate a bowl and a box of cereal. Meg, Oscar, Martha, and Ed joined him on the couch and stared expectantly at the TV. With a sigh, he flipped through the channels until he found an old episode of Mythbusters. The spiders _loved_ the explosions. Half a dozen spiders joined them during the next half hour, enjoying the marathon on display. It was a good thing too, if it had ended after that first episode they may have turned on him.

Peter almost choked on his cereal when Vision phased through the wall, Martha shot him a concerned look before racing off with the other spiders to greet him. They tugged on the android’s clothes until he followed them to the couch, so they didn’t have to choose between fretting over their new favourite person and watching their new favourite show. The spiders split at that point, with roughly half crowding around Vision and the rest returning to Peter. Crepsley seemed oddly protective of Peter throughout the whole thing, why he couldn’t say.

By the time Tony strolled in, all fifteen of the spiders had joined them in the living room. His entrance caused a stir, but they soon calmed down and returned to their seats. The morning was slow and peaceful. Webster and Natalie made their rounds, sometimes accompanied by either Violet or Crepsley (but never both at the same time).

Peter never imagined having breakfast with a billionaire and an android could seem so…normal. And _that_ was excluding the fifteen giant spiders.

Oh yeah, they were definitely going to make this work.

xxx

It lasted for about a week.

Vision turned out to be an enormous help and the best babysitter a person could ask for. When he wasn’t wirelessly tracking the spiders through security cameras or helping Peter adapt them to a new feeding schedule, he was observing their behaviour to learn more about their mannerisms. As it turned out, Vision didn’t have a whole lot to occupy his time since the other Avengers moved out.

One of the first things on the to do list was meeting Pepper Potts since she was technically the joint owner of the Compound. The meeting went a lot better than expected, and with Vision as his backup Peter managed to keep everyone in line. Despite her initial hesitation, she was soon won over by their offerings of plushie Avengers and general adorableness. Colonel Rhodes was a little harder to convince, he seemed to think giant spiders were right at the limits of the ‘acceptable’ level of weird and bordered on ‘THIS IS NOT OKAY’.

Still, everything was going better than he’d ever hoped. The spiders were adapting to their new environment, no one had demanded their banishment, and it was Sunday, so May was back.

Then Tony and Pepper set up a meeting regarding some…unexpected news.

“I want to make this clear, you’re _not_ being kicked out. Alright?” Tony said before they could even sit down. “Whatever happens, the spiders are a priority here.”

Peter reached out to scratch Anna’s head without thinking. Within seconds he had four spiders clambering over one another for his attention.

“Tony’s right. The paperwork may still be in the works, but we consider our verbal agreement as binding as any legal contract,” Pepper’s calm confidence helped to ease his nerves. May, ever the practical one, motioned for them to continue.

With the assurances out of the way, Tony got straight to the point. “According to my sources, the courts are ruling in favour of granting Cap and his buddies an official pardon.”

“Is that…bad?” Peter asked.

“Depends on who you ask. A lot of good has come out of the whole thing but…if the pardon does go through there’s going to be a whole ceremony and I’m under a lot of pressure to attend. Show that we’ve all risen above it or some bullsh-”

May cleared her throat and fixed him with a pointed look.

“What Tony means to say is, we need to assure the public that we’ve put the dispute behind us. Repairing the team’s name will take time and resources. It will mean a lot of strategic public appearances, conferences, and more than a little luck, but it’s doable. The problem is, the public will likely expect Captain America’s team to move back into the Compound.”

Oh… _oh_.

Peter glanced over to Anthony and Luna. The two were engaged in a half-hearted scuffle, more flipping and threatening than fighting if he was being honest.

“So…what do we do?”

“Well, really we only have two options moving forward. Either we come up with a reason why the other Avengers can’t stay, or we let them move back in. Obviously, the latter isn’t ideal, but based on our polls it is by far the most desirable option.”

“What about the spiders?” May asked when Peter couldn’t work up the nerve to ask.

“They take priority,” Tony said without hesitation. “If anyone doesn’t like it, that’s their problem.”

Pepper shot him a dirty look but didn’t deny it. “The problem is _how_ we break it to them. If it comes to it, we will of course evict anyone who puts the spiders at risk…but a public incident in such an early stage of negotiations could be dangerous for _all_ of those involved. So, while not ideal, we propose that we allow the ‘Rogues’ some time to settle in before broaching the subject. After a few weeks, it will be a lot easier to move them out quietly.”

“A few _weeks_?”

“At the very most.”

“But…” Peter started in a small voice. “But where will they _go_.”

“We’re not moving them,” Tony said. His tone made it clear the statement was not up for debate. “I’ll tell them we’re undergoing renovations or something and leave you guys the main rooms, they can sleep in the guest quarters.”

“Mr Stark you don’t have to-”

“They’ll have rooms, a kitchen, a living room, hell I’ll even give them the training rooms. They’ll be _fine_.”

“But-”

“No buts,” Pepper interrupted, and Peter fell silent. “It won’t be easy…not by a long stretch, but we’ll make it work.”

Aunt May’s expression shifted a few times before she settled on a look of grim determination.

“We better.”

xxx

The spiders gathered around the television to watch the ceremony. It was needlessly long and riddled with boring, politically motivated speeches but they were entranced nonetheless. Whenever an Avenger appeared on screen, they skittered back and forth and tugged at Peter’s pant leg to make sure he was paying attention. The Avengers were all in attendance and May was working, so Peter figured he’d be watching it alone.

He was wrong.

About twenty minutes in, Colonel Rhodes appeared and collapsed into one of the few unoccupied chairs.

“I thought you were going to Washington with Tony,” Peter said through a mouthful of popcorn.

He shrugged, “someone had to stay back and make sure you guys don’t wreck the place. Guess I drew the short straw.”

Peter got the feeling that wasn’t the only reason, but it didn’t feel right to pry.

“You want some popcorn?”

They watched as Tony Stark shook hands with Captain America, much to the delight of the news cameras. Tony made a short speech, all relaxed words and easy smiles. He said it was good to have them back, and Peter almost believed it.

Captain America’s speech followed similar lines, but the deliverance couldn’t have been more different. His speech served as a reminder that enhanced individuals were cropping up with every passing day, both good and bad. If the system can’t adapt, it will break.

Peter had trouble reading Rhodey’s expression. He nodded in agreement with some points, shook his head at others. The rest of the time he was impassive.

After about an hour, Peter suggested they take a break from the speeches to make some more popcorn, he knew he’d done the right thing when he saw the look of relief cross Rhodey’s face.

xxx

Peter expected moving day to be hectic. He supposed it was for some people, sections of the Compound were crammed with people, all with strict instructions. They moved furniture, switched out pictures, repaired every miniscule imperfection. Already clean windows became spotless, scrubbed floors were buffed and polished, and immaculate white walls were repainted (just to be sure). Peter stopped wearing shoes as everywhere he walked he found brand new fluffy carpets and the thought of tracking mud in racked up his anxiety.

When they arrived it all seemed…underwhelming. The wing the spiders lived in remained untouched by the madness, funny as Tony claimed it was the only wing being refurbished. When the team arrived, Peter watched it happen on the TV. He found it difficult to remember they weren’t miles away in some unknown location, they were right outside. The grass beneath Captain America’s feet? The same grass the spiders played on just yesterday.

It was surreal.

He couldn’t tell if the spiders realised this or if they just cared more about the TV. They watched as the Avengers smiled and waved for the cameras, gave a few short speeches, answered generic questions. Peter called Ned halfway through to compare notes.

“ _Are you in that building behind them?_ ”

“Which one?”

“ _The big one.”_

“Pretty sure that’s R&D, the wing I’m in is kind of around the back.”

“ _So cool. Aren’t you worried with all the paparazzi there? That place is all windows._ ”

“FRIDAY has them tinted so people can’t see in.”

“ _Dude, you’re on a first name with the most advanced AI on the planet!_ ”

“FRIDAY only _has_ a first name, Ned.”

“ _Doesn’t make it any less cool!_ ”

Something prodded the back of Peter’s head and he turned around to find Edward looking at him expectantly. “Hold on a sec, I’ve gotta put you on speaker. Ed’s bugging me again.”

“ _Awwww, he misses me_.”

Ed didn’t indicate his happiness in any tangible way, but Peter got the feeling he was pretty content as he settled on the couch next to the phone.

“ _Hey, speaking of the spiders, you know when they’re gonna meet the other Avengers yet?_ ”

“Not exactly, Pepper said we should give it a few weeks at least.”

“ _A few_ weeks _? Doesn’t that seem a little…_ ”

“If they suddenly run out of the Compound screaming within two days it’s not gonna look good, Ned,” Peter sighed. “They’re hoping the media will start to focus on something else soon. Then it’ll be easier to move people around without drawing attention.”

“ _I guess…but isn’t that gonna be weird for you?_ ”

“Probably,” Peter said with a shrug. “But Rhodes promised to visit us and Vision’s like their honorary godfather at this point, so we won’t be _completely_ alone.”

“ _I still can’t believe you’re friends with an android. Just make sure you don’t become the Dave Bowman in this situation, okay?_ ”

He rolled his eyes, “I’m pretty sure FRIDAY would be HAL in this situation, not Vision.”

“ _Fine…but if he tries to suffocate you with a rolled up newspaper I reserve the right to say, ‘I told you so’!_ ”

xxx

It took Peter an embarrassing amount of time to realise why everything was upside down. He blinked at the spiders huddled around him on the ceiling, all very happy with this location shift. He wasn’t even in his _room_ , even from his bizarre vantage point he could recognise the living room carpet.  When he looked up (down?) he saw papers scattered haphazardly across the coffee table…almost as if someone had dropped them from some height and never bothered to pick them up. He groaned when he glimpsed the title of his summer assignment for English class among the scattered papers.

Maybe writing essays upside down _wasn’t_ such a good idea.

He yawned and nudged a few of the spiders aside so he could detach from the ceiling. He was still wearing his joggers and Midtown School of Science and Technology hoodie from yesterday but when he reached into his pocket for his phone he came up empty. He spent a solid five minutes scouring the carnage before Shelby woke up long enough to dig it out from the couch cushions. He gave her an affectionate pat and she allowed herself a moment of pride before promptly passing out again.

Peter padded barefoot into the kitchen. His eyes refused to adjust to the change in light, but he was hardly one to let blindness get in the way of food. He felt more than a little proud of himself when he located the cereal cupboard through the blurriness. Ugh, it was too _early_.

“Hey there, kid.”

“Holy shit!” Peter yelped, it was a small miracle he didn’t end up on the ceiling for the second time that morning.

“Don’t let Rogers hear you using that kind of language,” Tony said without looking up from his coffee.

“Were you guys here this whole time?!”

Rhodey raised an eyebrow, “what’s the matter kid? Got up on the wrong side of the ceiling this morning?”

Peter went through a range of expressions in that moment. His eyes widened until he looked almost comical, then the surprise gave way to horror, his face flushed in embarrassment, his eyes narrowed as he began to plot his revenge. Then the tiredness caught up with him and he slumped in defeat.

“I’m never going to live this down, am I?” he said miserably.

Rhodey patted him on the back and Vision offered him pancakes which, if he was being honest, more than made up for it.

“ _Sorry to interrupt boss, but Captain Rogers is asking about your whereabouts._ ”

Tony sighed, “tell him I’ll meet him in my lab.”

“ _Right away, sir._ ”

Even after Tony left the room, Peter felt the strange urge to keep his voice down. “He knows he doesn’t _have_ to hang out here if he’s busy, right? I mean with the Avengers here and everything…”

Rhodey seemed to host some sort of internal debate before he replied, “To be blunt, I think Tony is spending so much time here in part _because_ of the Avengers. One ribbon cutting ceremony isn’t enough to make up for everything that happened, no matter what the tabloids say.”

“Oh…”

Martha saved him from coming up with a response as she wandered into the kitchen. Rhodes stiffened at the sight of her, it didn’t seem to matter _how_ much time he spent around them. Peter could only hope they wouldn’t grow too much more, if the Colonel could barely handle them Labrador-sized, he dreaded to think what he’d make of them truck-sized.

The spider did her usual morning rounds, moving over to greet Vision, then Rhodes (they never seemed to notice that his hands shook when he patted their heads), before she settled by Peter’s chair. She was always mindful to stay within arm’s reach.

“Do you have to go too?”

“Actually, I was thinking of spending the afternoon with you and the spiders. Desensitise myself to them and all that.”

“Won’t the others wonder where you are?” Peter asked in confusion. “I mean, it’s great having you around and the spiders love the company but…it seems like you’ve been hanging around here a lot.”

He left the ‘but only since the Avengers arrived’ unsaid.

Rhodey made eye contact with Vision for a fleeting, awkward moment.

“Yeah, well, things are still kind of…weird right now.”

Peter wasn’t sure how to respond to that, but Vision looked thoughtful.

“My apologies, I have matters to attend to,” the android said, and without another word he phased through the wall and vanished. Rhodes seemed sympathetic at least.

“Look, I’m sorry you’re in the middle of all this. You’re a good kid and with the whole spider clone thing…You’ve got more than enough to deal with without having to worry about all this on top of it.”

They sat in comfortable silence as the other spiders filtered in, Rhodes drinking coffee and Peter ate pancake after pancake. He’d have to thank Vision for setting aside a whole stack for him.

“So the one with the Hulk plushie is Benjamin, right?” Rhodes asked.

“Yup.”

“And the one with the Luke Cage plushie is…Bethany?”

“Charlotte.”

“Damn. So which on is Bethany?”

“By the microwave, she’s got the Iron Fist plushie, but she prefers hiding it to carrying it around with her.”

“I thought Violet had the Iron Fist plushie,” Rhodey asked with genuine confusion.

“Hawkeye.”

“Jesus, how the hell do you keep track of them?!”

“I dunno, I just can. I could tell them apart even before they got the plushies, it just seems kind of obvious.”

“Obvious,” Rhodes repeated flatly.

“Well…yeah. It’s like telling people apart, you’ve got to pay attention to the features. Like how Shelby is the biggest, but Bethany has longer legs. And Oscar and Crepsley are basically the same size but Crepsley’s more…energetic? He’s always moving and he kind of twitches when he walks like he’s ready to race up the walls. Luna’s easy cause she has that discoloured patch on the back, Natalie too for different reasons.” He shrugged, “May thinks it’s a spider bite thing, but I’m not so sure. You’ve just gotta get familiar with them, you know?”

Rhodey looked sceptical but continued memorising their names nonetheless. It was kind of touching.

They soon moved into the living room, to the joy of the other spiders. Peter put on Finding Nemo with the volume turned down low to entertain them while he gathered up his homework. To Peter’s utter glee, it took only the barest hint of coaxing to get Rhodey telling War Machine stories.

When they first met, Peter had been reluctant to bring it up because…well, he’d seen him fall out of the sky when they were in Germany. He figured it would be a rough topic. To his surprise, Colonel Rhodes relished in any opportunity to relive his ‘greatest hits’. Most were from his War Machine days, but a number of his stories came from his days as a jet pilot in the air force. Peter’s favourites were the rare few from his days at M.I.T. where he alternated between being Tony’s closest friend and his undefeated rival.

He never would have imagined Tony Stark of all people being involved in a prank war. Rhodes claimed they were still technically under a temporary ceasefire as Tony to this day refused to declare the war over.

Rhodey spent most of the afternoon hanging around with the spiders and more often than not Tony was by his side. Peter never asked but he wasn’t stupid. The wing was probably the only place on the grounds the Rogues _didn’t_ have access to, it was no coincidence the pair spent every spare second there.

The spiders seemed pretty happy to have the company, Vision still being their favourite (although he never seemed to spend much time with them when Rhodey was around). When he wasn’t there, Anthony latched onto Tony’s side and Luna crouched by Rhodey’s feet.

Luna had a more…possessive approach to expressing her admiration for her favourite hero. Peter suspected she was picking up on Rhodey’s anxiousness, or maybe it was his visible struggle whenever he had to walk more than a few steps. Whatever the case, she took her self-appointed position as War Machine’s body guard _very_ seriously. He’d lost track of how many times he’d told her off for throwing up threat postures at her siblings for getting too close to him.

The spiders spent the rest of the day alternating between watching TV, wandering the halls, following people around, and squabbling with one another (or ‘play fighting’ as Tony called it).

Tony returned just as Peter called the spiders into the living room for their daily lessons. He was never really sure how much they picked up on until they felt the desire to communicate, but he did his best. Mostly he streamed YouTube videos on the TV designed to teach toddlers fundamental basics like the alphabet and counting. He favoured a channel which, while a little rough around the edges, didn’t come off as condescending as the mainstream programs. They were shorter too.

When their video was finished, he repeated some of the basic concepts in sign language (having double checked the necessary words on his phone while the video was playing). Verbal and written English confused them, but they were showing some headway with numbers.

Pepper appeared in the doorway with an irritated expression about twenty minutes in, though the look vanished as soon as she caught sight of Peter holding up hand written flash cards to his small army of spider-children.

She _was_ there to order Tony and Rhodey back into the main building for the Avengers’ first real training exercise since the disbandment, but she told FRIDAY to delay the event a while longer and joined them on the couch.

Peter always timed his sessions to make sure they never went over the 45 minute mark for fear of overworking them, and this was no exception. When his alarm went off, he dropped his flash cards feeling an odd mixture of bone deep exhaustion and heart-warming pride.

“You seem to be making progress with them,” Pepper commented with a warm smile, her phone held loosely in one hand as if she’d forgotten she was holding it.

“Thanks, I’m hoping to move onto sums soon.” Crepsley prodded the pile of discarded cards with interest, prompting Peter to leap in and snatch them away before they could be stolen. The presence of his Captain America plushie seemed to take the edge off of his pilfering tendencies, but the spider was still a thief.

With the lessons over, a number of the spiders moved to greet Pepper. Martha in particular had taken a liking to her and climbed onto the couch to sit beside her.

“I’m sorry we can’t stay longer,” Pepper said, half to Peter and half to the spiders surrounding her. “But we’ve already rescheduled this exercise twice.”

Peter felt a pang of gratitude that he wasn’t on the receiving end of the pointed look she threw at Tony.

“Well, it was nice seeing you,” Rhodey said with a little too much enthusiasm. “Have fun with the Avengers! See you later?”

“Not so fast, you _promised_ me you’d give this a shot. I don’t care if you’re shouting insults from the side lines, this is important Rhodey.”

For a moment, Peter thought the Colonel would protest but he soon thought better of it. With some effort he hauled himself out of his seat, offering Luna a mock salute before he limped out of the room with Pepper close at his heels. She paused in the doorway to glower at Tony when he failed to move, and the billionaire shot Peter an apologetic look before he hurried after them.

Even Tony Stark was wise enough to recognise when Pepper Potts was in one of her no nonsense moods.

The Avengers passed in and out of this section of the Compound a lot, so Peter was pretty familiar with the sudden shift from ‘room full of people’ to ‘room occupied only by giant spiders’. He finished packing up the materials he’d used for their lessons and shoved everything into his backpack. His eyes fell on the unfinished English assignment, it was tempting to just let it sit for the next few weeks, but he knew he’d _never_ get all his homework finished if he left everything to the last minute, so he did the responsible thing and sat down to work on it.

Normally he put a cap on how much TV the spiders watched in a day, but they seemed to think ‘Peter doing homework’ somehow translated to ‘spiders get to watch Toy Story’ and…well, he wasn’t great about putting his foot down. So, after resisting their cuteness for about a minute and a half, he put on Toy Story and sent May a short video of them climbing over each other for the best seats.

Overall it was a pretty productive session. Crepsley only stole his pen twice, and both times he gave it back after only minimal coaxing. He made it all the way to the end of Toy Story and was able to count the number of times he’d been interrupted on one hand, it was almost unheard of.

He should have known then that he was due a catastrophe.

As it was, he counted himself lucky and finished up his assignment. Even without the TV to occupy them, the spiders were content to let him be. He was forced to write at an odd angle when Anthony pressed up against his side and settled down for a nap, but he couldn’t bring himself to mind.

It took another hour for him to finish up his English assignment. It was scrappy, the frantic scrawls and scribbled out words made it almost unreadable, but he wasn’t worried. He’d type it all up later anyway.

He wasn’t really sure why he preferred to write his first drafts out by hand. Maybe it was because for years the only computers he had access to at home were unreliable at best and prone to shutting down mid-project, scrapping all his hard work with it. Maybe it was just because using his laptop from the comfort of the ceiling was more trouble than it was worth.

Peter scratched Anthony’s head and muttered apologies under his breath as he stood up. The spider conveyed a silent grumble before he settled down again. He hated disturbing the spider, but he really needed to stash his assignment in his quarters before one of the spiders got the bright idea to hide it.

That was when he got the announcement: in his room, rummaging through his backpack for his English folder with not a spider in sight.

“ _Mr. Parker_ ,” FRIDAY said, the note of concern in the AI’s voice chilled him to his core. “ _I believe we have a problem_.”

xxx

To be blunt, training was awkward. Sam wasn’t really used to that.

He was still pretty new to the whole Avengers thing, he wasn’t ashamed to admit it. The original Avengers formed years before Steve even knew he existed, but he’d spent enough time in their company to know how things were supposed to work. When they fought together, there was banter. When they fought _against_ each other, there was banter. It never seemed to much matter what was going on. When Clint was thrown off a roof and Sam broke his ribs snatching him out of the air? Bird puns. When Steve took the butt of a machine gun to the face in a close quarters fight and it fractured his cheekbone? He still delivered his retort with perfect comedic timing.

And yet, after an hour of training, no one had cracked a single joke. Hell, no one said anything outside of courtesy. The stiff apologies and fleeting attempts at eye contact were setting him on edge. He tried at first, but his attempts at humour fell flat and made him feel even more like an outsider looking in. No, it was up to the original Avengers to break the ice.

Still, Sam supposed it could be worse. So far, they’d kept the sparring friendly. He doubted they would have gotten this far if Bucky had decided to join them.

It was almost a relief when Pepper appeared to tell Tony something had come up at their branch in Chicago. He leapt at the chance to leave, though he had the decency to keep up appearances and apologise for the interruption.

“You guys keep going,” he encouraged. “Gotta stay on your toes and all that.”

“Uh, Tony?” Sam asked before the billionaire could flee the scene. He felt a little awkward using his first name. “Did you get a chance to look at the wings?”

“Not yet, had a lot going on around here. I’ll have them fixed for you by next week,” Tony said with a dismissive wave and vanished before Sam could get another word in edgewise.

 _Great,_ not only were his wings still damaged, but they were locked away in a lab somewhere outside of his reach. He shouldn’t have bothered asking Stark to fix them. Sure, the drag on his left wing made flying a pain, but it was better than being grounded.

“We can skip the gadgets today, Sam,” Steve put in. “Just good old fashioned sparring.”

“Thanks, but you guys go ahead. I’m getting my old pack from my quarters.”

“The primary living areas are off limits,” Vision reminded him with a solemn expression.

Steve waited until the others dispersed before he spoke up again. “I’m serious, Sam. We can put off intensive training until your pack is fixed.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. Go kick Vision’s ass for me,” Sam encouraged with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Steve gave him a quick once over before he joined the others outside and Sam was left to practice with the other ‘normal Avengers’, not that he could really practice with them either. He didn’t have a death wish.

He watched from the side-lines as Natasha used Clint’s momentum against him and sent him sprawling to the floor, then he watched the rematch which ended with Clint body slamming Natasha against the wall to escape a triangle choke. The third one Clint won again, the fourth and fifth went to Natasha and so on and so on.

“This sucks,” he sighed when the pair finally decided to take a break.

“You could join in if you want,” Natasha said with a teasing smile.

“You know, I would, but as it happens mutilation disagrees with me so…I’ll pass, thanks.”

Clint snorted, “and yet, you’re practically itching to take on two super soldiers and an android who can shoot lasers. Go figure.”

Sam sent a longing through the floor to ceiling window. He didn’t need sound to appreciate the scene. The remaining Avengers were starting to relax a little as they watched Wanda use her abilities to create harmless moving targets for Vision’s target practice. Well, they _seemed_ harmless until a charred tennis ball smacked Bucky in the side of the head. Someone must have teased her about it because her face flushed the same shade as her jacket, but her smile told Sam it was all in good fun.

Sam left the bench and made his way over to the door to the other half of the training facility, the off-limits half. As expected, the doors didn’t budge.

“Hey, FRIDAY? Can you let me in?”

“ _I’m afraid not, Mr Wilson. This area is off limits for the duration of the renovations._ ”

“Worth a shot,” he muttered under his breath. Instead of returning to the bench, he leaned heavily against the door. To his surprise, the assassin duo joined him.

“You reckon Rhodes is authorised to go back there?” He wasn’t sure why he even bothered asking, as if the Colonel would want to do _him_ a favour.

Clint shot Natasha a loaded look and Sam couldn’t help but feel left out. “What is it?”

“Have you seen any work trucks since we moved back in?” Natasha asked.

Sam frowned, “no?”

“You’ve got to admit, something about this whole ‘renovation project’ is off,” Clint said. “I mean, I’d get a few rooms, but the entire wing?”

“Maybe he just wanted to change things up,” Sam suggested, but their words pulled at his gut.

“Tony’s _logical_.” Natasha gestured to the door, “does this seem logical to you? If he were redecorating, he’d do it room by room and apologise for the mess. Instead, he’s barred anyone from entering half the main building for several _weeks_.”

Well, when she put it like that…“I asked Tony about when they’d be finished the other day. I didn’t think about it at the time…but he refused to be more specific than ‘it’ll be finished within the next few weeks’.”

“When he was designing the place, he had the whole scheduled mapped out down to the hour,” Clint said with a grim expression.

Sam eyed the door in a new light. “You got any theories?”

“No solid ones, no,” Clint said. “Do you want to find out?”

“How?”

“After the Ultron incident, Tony gave all the original Avengers an override code in case we needed to overpower FRIDAY. It won’t let us do anything as drastic as accessing confidential files, but unlocking a door?” Clint raised an eyebrow. “All we need is a cover in case we get caught. Say, retrieving your spare pack?”

Sam tried to shrug off the feeling that he was being used, he was always a sucker for a mystery, and if Stark was up to something he wanted to know about it. “Alright, I’m in.”

It took him all of three seconds to realise they’d planned this whole thing out long before he got involved. Without even discussing it, Natasha split away from them and disappeared into the storage room.

“Is she not coming with?” Sam asked in confusion.

“Nah, if they come back and all three of us are nowhere to be found it’ll be obvious. She’ll hang back and vouch for our whereabouts.”

His level of concern only grew when Clint retrieved his fold up bow from the underside of the weight lifting bench.

When he was certain no one was watching them, he gave FRIDAY the override code and the door unlocked with an innocent _click_.

“Do you think Stark will be pissed if he finds us here?”

“Probably,” Clint said, but his attention was focused on the hall. “I’ll be damned, everything’s the same.”

“Maybe he was just touching up the paint?” Sam suggested. “It wouldn’t be that noticeable.”

“And he forbade us from entering because…what? He was afraid we’d touch the walls while the paint dried?” He turned his focus away from Sam as he started to pick at the edges of a target pinned to the wall. “Only one way to find out.”

In one fluid motion, he ripped the board from the wall.

“Jesus, man! Why the hell would you-” The question died in Sam’s throat when he caught sight of an ugly slash marring the otherwise spotless surface.

“Natasha and I got into a sparring match one time when I came to visit, let’s just say things got a little out of control. We moved this here to hide it. You’re seriously telling me Tony went to the trouble of having this whole room repainted but didn’t bother taking down the targets?”

Sam didn’t have a good answer, so he opted to say nothing at all.

He wandered out into the hall while Clint tried and failed to hang the board back on the wall. When he’d lived in the wing, the word ‘eerie’ never would have come to mind. But now? With the whole place unoccupied and the weight of an unknown motive? Yeah, it was safe to say the place set him on edge.

The light around the corner turned on.

Sam reached for his holster before remembering, no, he wasn’t _wearing_ his holster. So, he did what any logical human being would have done and darted back inside the training hall, slamming the door behind him.

“What’s got you so spooked?”

Sam couldn’t help but feel he may have overreacted a little bit. Not that he’d admit that to Clint. “The lights in this place are motion sensitive, right?”

“Yeah, so?”

“So…have you ever seen the lights go on for any _other_ reason?”

Clint fixed him with a look. “You want to fast forward through the hypothetical questions and get to the point?”

“I think there’s someone in the hall, just around the corner.”

He half expected Clint to panic, instead he seemed to switch into super spy mode. “Did they see you?”

“I don’t think so. Hell, I don’t know for sure if it _was_ something. Maybe the lights are just malfunctioning or something?”

Clint propped the target up against the wall and unfurled his bow. “Or something. Wait here.”

The assassin’s movements were careful yet fluid, he slipped through the door without making a single sound. Sam resisted the overwhelming urge to hold his breath, but only just.

Damn spies.

Clint returned less than a minute later and shrugged to show his search had turned up empty. His posture, however, remained unchanged. Tense and wound up like a spring, Sam wasn’t the only one waiting for the other shoe to drop.

They moved with caution, more than ever Sam wished he’d brought his gun.

More than once they heard footsteps around corners, but no matter how fast they moved there was nothing there when they investigated. It was more irritating than creepy…until they started hearing the footsteps behind them as well.

At this point, Sam wanted nothing more than to crack a joke and break the tension, but they were straining to hear _something_. At this point, he didn’t think the actual thing (whatever it might be) could be worse than the rising tensions.

They somehow reached Sam’s room without incident. Clint conducted a hasty yet thorough search of the place and gave the room the all clear. It was kind of weird to be back here after…what? A year on the run? He’d lost track. If he was being honest, he’d half expected Tony to turn their quarters into sewing rooms or whatever after that shit show in Siberia. Instead, his room was exactly as he’d left it, down to the clothes he’d left folded on the chair.

He wondered if Steve’s room was the same.

“What the hell is going on?” Clint muttered. Even with a locked door between them and…whatever, he kept his voice down.

“Maybe we’re just…imagining it?” Sam suggested. “It’s the paranoia getting to us.”

Clint’s expression grew incredulous. “I’ve been a field agent since I was 17. Anxiety, paranoia, hell even PTSD, I’ve done it all. This is _not_ a fucking shared delusion, Sam.”

“…Maybe Tony got a cat?”

Clint face palmed, but at least the tension in the air wasn’t quite so thick.

“Let’s just get your pack so we can solve this mystery and get the hell out of here."

Neither one of them really wanted to leave the room, but they ventured back into the hall all the same. Any doubt left Sam’s mind when a series of scratches and taps sounded from the hallway up ahead, too loud and clear to be a figment of his imagination.

Too disjointed to be any one person.

Clint gave him a grim nod and the pair proceeded. Sam was still unarmed, the pack would be more or less useless in such close quarters, but its weight on his back felt reassuring.

The pair crept through the halls, the echoes of their footsteps sounding too loud in the silent halls. Shadows moved in the halls ahead, vague stretched impressions that vanished long before they could reach the corner.

They didn’t say a word the whole way there, the closest they came was the look they exchanged when they heard the living room door slam up ahead. Sam’s heart sped up when he realised the only way forward was _through_ said door. He pulled back a little to let Clint take the lead, thankful when the archer failed to comment.

Clint held up a hand and crept forward until he was flush against the door. Even from Sam’s position he could hear movement on the other side, that distant scratching and tapping sound that had chased them throughout the wing. Clint reached out, his hand closing around the door handle.

“ _Wait!_ ”

Sam swore as he spun to face them, he didn’t even _see_ Clint load his bow, but it was trained on the figure before them.

It took him a second to place him, even with the primary coloured costume.

“Shit, you’re that kid from the airport.”

Either Clint recognised him as well or he took Sam’s word for it because he relaxed the bow string within seconds.

“Yeah…I, uh, I go by Spider-Man. Nice to meet you for real Mr. Falcon. Sorry for webbing you up that one time.”

Clint gave Sam a look that quite clearly said ‘is this kid for real?’ before he returned the arrow to his quiver and folded up his bow.

“You mind telling us what you’re doing here?”

The kid froze. “Um…Mr Stark invited me?”

“Not ‘here’ as in the building,” Clint amended. “Here as in, this section of the building Tony claimed was off limits.”

“…Mr Stark asked me to check something?”

“Was that a statement or a suggestion?” Sam chimed in.

“A state- I mean…” he cleared his throat and stood up a little straighter. “I’m here because Mr Stark asked me to check on something.”

“And what _exactly_ did Tony ask you to check on?”

Jesus, Sam could see the panic on his expression even with the mask on. He made a few aborted motions with his hands and broken attempts at voicing a train of thought. “That’s…um…classified?” he all but squeaked.

“Come on, man. Go easy on him, he’s a _kid_.”

The Spider-Kid tried to protest, but his pitch didn’t exactly help his case.

“It’s a simple enough question,” Clint said with a shrug. “How come we haven’t seen you around, anyway?”

“I spend a lot of time in R&D,” the words spilled out of him with an undercurrent of relief. Sam could practically hear him think the words ‘ _finally, a question I can answer_ ’. “And I’m not – like – _living_ here. Not like you guys, it’s kind of a part time thing.”

“So, what’s in here?” Clint asked, gesturing to the door behind him for emphasis.

“How should I know?”

“You told me to wait, rather loudly might I add. Got something you don’t want us to see?”

“What? No! I mean- Why would you think I have something to hide?”

Jesus this kid was bad at lying.

“Well, in that case.” Clint reached out to turn the doorknob again only for the kid to shriek his protests once again.

“Wait! Okay, listen. They’re…um…they’re redecorating in there. Really messy, Mr Stark will be mad if you go in there. All the paint is still drying and there are ladders propped up against the doors and stuff so if you open it it’ll make even _more_ mess and then-”

“Stop,” Clint ordered, and the kid halted his ramblings. “Good, now _breathe_.”

The kid inhaled deeply, and before anyone could move an inch, Clint wrenched open the door and unfolded his bow.

The room was empty.

“You said they were painting in here?” Sam asked. The kid shrank down before his eyes.

“It all looks clear,” Clint said after a quick scan of the room, but he kept his bow unfurled.

“I didn’t hear the other door. Where do you think they went?”

“Must have snuck out while we were distracted.” Clint shot a dirty look at the kid, but his expression shifted when he caught sight of him. Even with the mask in place you could tell something was wrong, his posture was all wrong and stiff. Sam would bet anything the blood had drained from his face.

There was something very strange about the kid, and it wasn’t just the bright red getup.

“ _They?_ ” he all but choked out. “You mean…you saw someone?”

Sam and Clint exchanged a look. “How much time do you normally spend in this section of the Compound?”

The kid shuffled his feet.

With a sigh, Sam reworded the question. “Have you seen or heard anything weird around here? Like, scratching noises. Feeling of being watched, that sort of thing.”

“No?” the kid gave a nervous laugh. “You make it sound like the place is haunted or something.”

Sam rolled his eyes, “don’t worry kid. We’ll make sure Casper keeps his distance. Right, Barton?”

But Clint wasn’t standing beside him anymore. He was over by the couch, a perplexed expression on his face.

“What in the hell…?”

“You find something?”

He raised the object into the air to let Sam could see it. The object in question was a plushie of…Vision. He’d seen them once or twice in toy shop windows, there were even a few falcon ones in circulation. Why there’d be one _here_ he had no clue.

He saw the kid stiffen again in his peripheral vision before- There it was again. That same, half-tapping half-scratching noise, rattling and disjointed and oh so disturbingly _close_.

Very, very slowly, Sam raised his eyes to the ceiling.

“Clint!” he shouted in warning, a split second before an enormous spider dropped down on his head.

Now, Sam wasn’t one to exaggerate, so when he said the spider was _enormous_ , he truly meant _about twenty times larger than any spider has any right to be_.

The beast tackled Clint to the floor, curved fangs missing his throat by inches. The bow clattered across the floor and the archer let out a string of choice curse words. He didn’t let it stop him though, already he was reaching for his quiver with his free hand. He grasped an arrow in a reverse grip and made to drive it into one of the creature’s many eyes before it could sink its fangs into his flesh. His efforts were halted, however, when a strand of webbing latched on to the arrow and yanked it from his grip.

Before Clint could make for another one, the spider leapt off of him and darted towards the kid.

Instead of racing in the opposite direction like _any sane person would_ , the kid fell into a sort of half-crouch half-fighting stance. The spider darted past him and attempted to use his slim frame as a shield. It was without a doubt the most bizarre thing Sam had ever seen, and there was a fair bit of competition these days.

“Kid…” Clint said in a low voice as he got to his voice. He kept his movements slow and predictable to avoid spooking them. He couldn’t seem to find the words to form questions. Where to even _begin_?

“I won’t let you hurt her.” Sam noticed the kid was trembling, he wasn’t sure if it was with fear or with anger.

No one seemed sure how to proceed. Two unarmed Avengers against a strange, superpowered kid who’d apparently befriended a giant spider.

Sam really wished he’d never watched that Harry Potter movie with his niece.

The spider watched Clint with an alarming intensity. It was then that Sam noticed something else. Clutched in its…pincers? Yeah, let’s call them pincers, was the stuffed Vision plushie. His eyes flickered back to Clint just to be sure, he supposed the thing must have grabbed it in the struggle. Sam shuddered when it moved its long, hairy legs. Tap, tap, tapping forward inch by inch to peer around the kid and stare at him with those soulless black eyes.

It struck the floor with one of its front legs and the kid’s attention switched to the beast. He made a motion with his hands, too fast for Sam to keep track of, and the spider backed away. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Clint frown.

The door creaked behind him, and Sam turned his head just in time to see a long, hairy, distinctly _not human_ leg curl around the edge of the door.

In the span of a split second the kid scooped up the spider behind him and flat out sprinted towards the door as if it didn’t weigh a thing even though the beast was almost as large as he was. It flailed in his grip before wrapping its many legs around him like a parasitic octopus. Clint went for his bow, but too slow. The kid was gone, taking both spiders with him and slamming the door behind him for good measure.

Sam lunged for the door, but it wouldn’t despite not even having a lock. He threw his weight against it and through the narrow sliver of a gap he glimpsed the thick layer of webbing cementing it to the wall.

“We’re not getting through here any time soon. Should we leave through the other door and try to cut him off?”

“We don’t know where he’s going, what he’s capable of, how many…allies he has at his disposal, or what the _hell_ is going on here. I vote we go back and regroup, tell Steve what we know,” Clint voted as he checked over his bow.

“One thing’s for sure, Stark has some serious explaining to do.”

xxx

“ _Stupid_ ,” Peter choked out. Meg hesitated before resting a fuzzy foot on his head. It took a moment to realise she was attempting to console him. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and patted her with undeniable affection.

“Thanks, girl,” he murmured. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out.”

As for the _how_ of it, he wasn’t quite sure. He wondered if Tony would be angry when he came back from…wherever he was ( _the boss is off the premises, Mr Parker. I’d contact Vision on your behalf but with the override codes, their security clearance trumps yours and they specifically requested I refrain from alerting him along with the Colonel. I’m afraid you’re on your own_ ), would he blame Peter for that fiasco in the living room? Or worse, would he take it out on Captain Rogers and his side of the team?

Because Peter could handle another fallout with Tony. It would be rough, _really_ rough, but so long as he agreed to let the spiders stay, they’d figure it out…Being the one to destroy any hope of the Avengers getting back together, on the other hand? Peter wasn’t sure he could handle that.

He raised his head and leaned over the edge of his web-hammock to count the spiders again. _Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Double check to make sure_. It didn’t matter that he’d counted them all at least a dozen times since sealing them inside his room. The idea clamped on and wormed its way deep inside, twisting his stomach and filling him with dread.

_What if you miscounted the last time? Are you sure you didn’t count Beth twice and miss out Anna? What about Natalie? She’s slipped by you before._

_Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Once more, just to be on the safe side_.

The spiders were nervous. He knew they sensed his distress, knew it fed their own unease. He’d left the TV on mute, sound didn’t matter to them and he needed to keep an ear out in case the Avengers went looking for them. For once, the bright colours failed to entrance the spiders.

 **Safe here** , he signed. They remained unconvinced.

He hugged his knees as a shiver ran through his body, so violent it made his teeth chatter.

_Count again, just to be sure._

It felt like a portion of his brain was lagging. The important part that was supposed to _process_ things, but it was stuck in a groove, insisting this wasn’t happening. His survival responses were working just fine, he was wound up like a spring just waiting for an excuse to leap into action. His heart pounded the way it only did when he was out as Spider-Man, perched on a rooftop with a clear goal in sight and a hair’s breadth from the edge of a rooftop. It was the feeling he got when he prepared himself for a fight, but this time he found the idea more intimidating than exciting.

Oscar dropped from the ceiling and landed on top of him. Meg prodded him with clear irritation, but the spider ignored her and settled on Peter’s chest the way he used to when he first hatched. He scratched the spider’s head and hoped the little guy understood how much he appreciated the gesture.

Peter must have calmed down somewhat because when Vision floated through the wall like a Christmas themed ghost, he barely even flinched. Maybe some part of his brain thought Oscar’s comfort was more important than fleeing a source of potential danger. Go figure.

“Is anyone injured?” Vision asked, surveying the room even as he asked the question.

Peter shook his head, an immense wave of gratitude towards the android catching him off guard. He still wasn’t sure what Vision really _felt_ , but he managed to strike a perfect balance of concerned and ready to act but thoroughly relaxed. He gave the impression of someone who had an indepth understanding of the situation and knew exactly how to proceed. Peter wondered if he could teach him to master that ‘I’m self-assured and completely confident that this situation is under control’ look without coming across like a Flash level narcissist.

Satisfied that everything was as it should be, Vision knelt to allow the spiders to approach him at eye level. Under normal circumstances, every spider in the room would have crowded round him. As it was, a little less than half made cautious move towards him and only four got within arm-swinging length.

To his surprise, the spiders that _did_ approach him soon started to tug on his cape the same way they tugged at Peter’s clothing when they wanted his attention. They jabbed their front legs in Peter’s direction, like they expected Vision to fix the situation for them.

“Am I mistaken in thinking they are under some stress?” Vision asked after a brief pause.

Peter bit his lip. “I haven’t really been able to…explain this to them. They _love_ the Avengers, I don’t know how to say their favourite heroes may try to kill them just for existing.”

Vision surprised him once again when a look of understanding crossed his face.

“I will talk to the Avengers. I will make it understood that the spiders are not to be harmed under any circumstances.”

“…Does Tony know yet?”

“Not that I’m aware. Would you like me to inform him on your behalf when he returns?”

Another nod.

The android watched the spiders with an odd expression Peter couldn’t put a name to.

“I don’t believe the others are beyond reason, Peter. This may take some getting used to, but they will adapt.”

Peter bit back a biting retort. It was easy for _him_ to say that, he didn’t so much as blink an eye when he stumbled upon the spiders for the first time (come to think of it, _could_ androids blink?).

“You really think so?” Peter asked instead. He hated how hopeful he sounded.

Vision rose from his crouch, his stance radiating confidence.

“I will make sure of it.”

xxx

Vision returned a few hours later with an oddly proud expression. Peter had since retreated from the safety of his web hammock. His attempts to reassure the spiders were still…mixed to say the least, but the majority shuffled forward to greet the android when he phased through the wall, so that was an improvement.

“If you would be willing, there is someone outside who would like to meet you.”

Peter stared, too stunned to form a coherent sentence. Instead, it came out as something like: “I-who-huh?”

“May I?” Vision asked, gesturing to partially dissolved webbing still coating the bedroom door. Peter hadn’t noticed when it started to deteriorate, had it really been two hours already?

He glanced up at the TV screen and tried to do the mental math to figure out how far through the movie they were, only to realise the movie started again from the top when it ended. This was the _second_ rotation of Bug’s Life, not the first.

Maybe he should have turned up the sound.

“Um…are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“I am confident that the spiders will be perfectly safe in their presence,” Vision assured him.

Peter’s gaze flickered between the android and the spiders, a half dozen excuses already on the tip of his tongue.

_They’re really agitated, I’m not sure how well they’ll cope with meeting new people right now._

_After everything that just happened with Falcon and Hawkeye, maybe we should hold off on introducing them to the Avengers for a while?_

_We should wait for Tony to get back._

_We should ask Pepper first._

_We should-_

“Okay,” Peter said in a small voice.

Vision pulled away the remaining webbing and phased through the door. He could hear his voice in the hall, telling someone outside they were allowed to come in. He wondered who it was, probably not Falcon or Hawkeye, but maybe the Black Widow?

 _Or Captain America_.

The door swung open and in stepped a girl, not _that_ much older than himself. She pushed her pale brown hair back off her face and gave him a nervous sort of smile.

“Hello, Spider-Man. It is nice to meet you properly,” she said with a trace of an accent he couldn’t quite place. Her voice was unfamiliar, he wasn’t sure if the Scarlet Witch had ever spoken in public before. Only then did it dawn on Peter that he wasn’t wearing his mask.

“Um…nice to meet you too Miss Scarlet Witch,” he said and tried not to panic. If he couldn’t trust an Avenger with his secret identity, who _could_ he trust?

“Wanda,” she corrected with a warm smile.

“Peter.”

He didn’t have to turn around to know one of the spiders was emerging from the den of sheets and webbing. Her expression and sharp intake of breath told him everything he needed to know.

After a time, she found the words to comment. “…Sam wasn’t exaggerating.”

“His name is Oscar,” Peter offered. He wasn’t really sure what else he _could_ do. “What happened with Hawkeye was a misunderstanding, I promise. They don’t look it but they’re harmless really!”

Her smile broadened. “They don’t look very intimidating to me. I’ve always adored spiders.”

“They…wait, really?”

“When I was a child I was fascinated by them,” she explained. “There was a small pet shop not far from where we- I…lived. They had a tarantula in a tank in the back, a Chilean Rose. I’d watch it for hours if they’d let me. Is it safe to touch them?”

“Of course!” Peter leapt to his feet. Oscar took a step back, a little uncertain, but the other spiders were creeping out of the various tunnels and hiding spots.

 **Safe,** he signed to the spiders. **MA, here**.

Martha crept forward obediently. She was one of the smaller females and without a doubt the best with people. He figured she’d be a good introductory spider. Peter scratched her head and gestured towards the new hero. The spider hesitated for only a split second before moving to greet her. Peter was pretty sure even Wanda would be able to see the curiosity in her expression.

As it turned out, the Scarlet Witch got on with the spiders almost as well as Vision.

They were more reluctant to greet her at first, the anxiety still riding high after the events of that afternoon. Oscar didn’t respond to meeting his hero as Anthony and Meg had. He was shy, a little like Luna but to an even greater extreme. He watched from the safety of the low hanging sheets, Peter wasn’t sure where he’d hidden his Scarlet Witch plushie, but he knew it was around somewhere.

Wanda soon found her attention split between twelve oversized spiders she couldn’t yet understand. When Oscar did creep forward, he seemed nervous and unwilling to butt in. Peter felt a pang of pride when Beth noticed the spider craning to see and nudged some of the others out of the way with her long legs to let him through. Vision explained the situation with the plushies, how most had chosen the representatives of their favourite heroes which led to Peter telling the story of how the little guy had picked a fight with the biggest spider for the Scarlet Witch plushie.

She smiled and waited patiently for Oscar to gather up the courage to move forward. He jumped and skittered back into the tunnels when she gave him a gentle pat. He returned after a few minutes to show off the Scarlet Witch plushie. Even Webster and Natalie called off their dutiful watch long enough for introductions.

Peter lost track of time as they sat on the floor of his room. A witch, a teen vigilante, an android, and fifteen giant spiders. It sounded like a bad joke.

The spiders were a little disappointed when they realised she couldn’t understand them as Vision had come to, but the android was happy to act as translator for them and they soon perked up again. He only ran into trouble when Ed made a strange, spasming motion with his pedipalps he’d never seen before.

A wave of excitement consumed the spiders and within seconds they were all mimicking the movement, tugging at Wanda’s clothing as they did it like a rather insistent audience demanding an encore.

“Are they…hungry?” Wanda asked with a bemused expression.

Peter snapped his fingers to get Natalie’s attention and signed: **what?**

The spider wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as the others and allowed Peter to divert her attention. She repeated the motion to him more slowly and jabbed a leg in Wanda’s direction. The motion almost seemed kind of…familiar.

 **You want?** He confirmed. The spider jerked her pedipalps in an upwards motion: a clear yes. He followed up with a few more questions, trying to narrow down their exact request. The spiders soon caught on to the fact that they didn’t understand the request but weren’t sure how better to convey it except to make the motion more exaggerated.

Peter slapped a hand over his forehead when it finally clicked.

“Do you understand their request?” Vision asked, still observing the scene with a calculating expression.

“I…uh, I _think_ they’re trying to say they want Wanda to…You know.” He mimicked the hand gestures he’d seen her make on TV whenever she used her weird powers and the spiders skittered back and forth in their excitement at being understood.

Wanda looked surprised and…something else Peter couldn’t identify. Worried maybe? They met eyes for a brief moment and she hunched over, hiding her face behind her hair.

“Hey, it’s no pressure. I can tell them no, it’s not a problem if you’re uncomfortable. They’ll understand,” he assured her.

“No, it’s alright. I’m just not- People don’t normally _request_ that I-” she trailed off, looking embarrassed.

Instead, she made that strange spasming motion with her fingers and beads of red light blossomed at her fingertips. The spiders twitched their legs the way they did when their favourite scenes in movies came on screen. Their many eyes stayed fixed on her hands, entranced by the simple display. Peter knew first hand that this was a parlour trick compared to what she _could_ do.

When she saw their positive responses, she grew more adventurous with her display. Scarlet tendrils became entangled in her fingers. They looped and twisted with liquid movements, intertwining and springing apart at the slightest motion from Wanda.

She made a gesture and the spiders turned to watch as those same tendrils wrapped around a book on the desk several feet away from her. With a jerk, she sent it flying across the room with startling speed but halted it in mid air before it could hit the wall. The spiders surely would have oohed and aahed given the ability to vocalise. Instead they tensed and hunched low to the ground as if about to pounce, fluffy bodies brimming with excitement.

They must have sat there for a solid half hour, Peter and Vision clapping while the spiders twitched their legs in appreciation as Wanda sent everything from pillows to lamps zooming around the room.

Peter almost forgot about the events of the day as he laughed at the spiders’ collective awe. That was, until FRIDAY informed them that Tony was looking for them. Before he could think twice about it, he told the AI they’d meet him in the kitchen. He was almost surprised when the prospect of leaving the room didn’t fill him with dread.

The spiders seemed happy to stretch their legs, though they refrained from wandering off in favour of huddling in a pack around the three heroes. It reminded him of their early days in the Compound. Meg started shivering halfway to the living room, forcing Peter to carry her the rest of the way but neither one put up much of a fuss.

They arrived to find Tony already nursing a steaming cup of coffee with an irritated Rhodey beside him.

“Two hours,” Tony said. “I was gone for _two hours_ and the Compound collapsed into chaos.”

“That’s a bit of an overstatement.”

“Is it, Rhodey? _Is it_?”

“They’re being childish, they will get over it soon enough,” Wanda insisted as she hopped up on the countertop.

Tony gave her an incredulous look. “I’m sorry, have you _met_ them? I barely had time to step out of my suit before Sam and Clint started screaming at me about the ‘attercop’ living in his old room. What the hell even _is_ an attercop?”

Before Vision could reply, Peter spoke up from behind him. “It’s a Hobbit reference.”

The teenager couldn’t help but squirm when all eyes fell on him. “What? I read.”

His traitorous spider sense failed to warn him when Wanda reached out and ruffled his hair. Shelby prodded his side to express her concern and confusion when he shouted protests at her. Only Rhodey caught Tony’s fond smile between gulps of still steaming hot coffee.

He resisted the urge to shake his head. Tony figured out a way to hide the kid and fifteen giant spiders for _weeks_ , the kid somehow made them all forget that the spiders had fangs almost the length of his forearm beneath their fluffy pedipalps. Together, he had no doubt they’d convert the Rogue Avengers over to their side.

xxx

Peter fiddled with his web shooters when he was nervous. It was a habit he’d picked up back when he first started doing the whole Spider-Man thing, back when instead of industrial grade machinery he had spare parts held onto his wrists by buckles salvaged from old watch straps. Every second he could spare was spent checking over the devices. Looking for flaws, for damages, for _anything_ to indicate that the next shot would fail him and send him plummeting to the pavement down below. His nerves eased a little when he replaced them with metal cuffs (thank god his teacher didn’t watch them too closely when they moved on to metal work in class or else they would have noticed his little side project). Then his cuffs were replaced by Tony Stark’s own model, leaving him with no reason to fuss over the gadgets. Not when they were made by the creator of the Iron Man and Karen could detect the faintest scratch.

And yet, the habit remained. He shouldn’t even _need_ his web shooters for this but-

Peter jumped when a hand clapped down on his shoulder. Anthony rushed forward now that he’d noticed his favourite person in the whole world had entered the room, skidding to a halt just shy of crashing into Tony’s legs. The millionaire hesitated before giving the spider a pat on the head and nodding as if listening to a very interesting lecture when Anthony showed off the Iron Man plushies for the millionth time.

“You about ready?”

“Almost,” Peter said as if he hadn’t exhausted every possible excuse to put this off. “Just…making sure Crepsley is the best choice.”

“Kid, we talked about this. May agreed, Vision agreed, Wanda agreed, _you_ agreed.”

“All the spiders respond differently to meeting their idols,” Peter argued. “What if he tries to tackle him or something?”

“Then who do you suggest?”

“I dunno…Oscar?”

“You already ruled out Oscar because he’s too shy.”

“Benjamin, then.”

Tony fixed him with a look that spoke for itself.

“…Fine, we’ll use Crepsley. I’m just saying-”

“Kid, I trust your judgment. If you _really_ think Benjamin is the better choice, go with Benjamin. But be honest with me, is your choice of spider really the problem here?”

“…no,” Peter said without looking up from the floor.

“Do you want me to reschedule? Do this some other day?”

Tony had no idea how tempting his offer truly was, but Peter had to face the fact that buying a week wasn’t going to make a difference.

“We’ll use Crepsley,” he decided.

If he didn’t know any better, he would have sworn he saw a glimmer of pride in Tony’s eyes.

“Alright, then let’s go get ‘em.”

Peter didn’t have Tony’s confidence, but he trailed along behind him all the same. And if he spent a little longer than was strictly necessary reassuring the other spiders? Well, no one had to know.

Tony paused when they reached the doors to the rest of the Compound. They were plain, unassuming, offering no hint of the dangers that lurked on the other side.

Peter didn’t trust his voice, so he shot Tony a thumbs up instead. The billionaire slipped through the doors and Peter did his best to block out the conversation taking place on the other side.

“ _Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean-“_

_“-animals, Tony. Can’t we at least bring our weapons? Or-”_

_“-if you want to continue living here rent free you’ll either have to suck it up or-”_

He was so engrossed he almost missed the sound of Wanda’s footsteps, thankfully she wasn’t in the mood to scare him into plastering himself onto the ceiling today.

“The spiders seem happy with Vision,” she assured him without prompting. “They still seem convinced that they can attack him without going right through him if they take him by surprise. They weren’t having much luck when I left.”

“How’s Rhodey finding the others?” Peter asked. He hated that he couldn’t keep the worry out of his voice.

“Crepsley and Martha seem eager to meet the team, but Rhodey has a handle on things.”

“…Is Webster doing okay?”

“Last I heard. Why don’t you see for yourself?”

Peter hesitated, eyes wandering back to the door.

_“Look, this is not up for debate. Do you want to hear the ground rules or not?”_

“Okay, yeah. That’s probably a good idea.”

He didn’t know Wanda that well yet, but already she reminded him a lot of Vision. They both had this self-assurance he didn’t think he’d _ever_ be able to master. Maybe it was a ‘I have mysterious cosmic powers and I could probably destroy you with a look if I wanted to’ kind of thing.

Just as Wanda said they would, the pair found Rhodey holed up in the living room where he was attempting to watch over four very demanding, very _curious_ spiders. The second they caught sight of him, Martha and Crepsley released their hostage and rushed over to bug him with their questions instead. They could only communicate a handful words at the moment, though he felt immense pride at every new word they learned. He had to admit, it lost some of its appeal when Crepsley and Martha started silently chanting a firm routine of **where? When? Where? When?**

“ **Soon** ,” he said as he signed, even though he’d all but given up on teaching them to interpret spoken English. “ **You wait, W follow**.”

There was a brief pause before the spiders changed their mantra to: **why? Why? Why?** Even Natalie gave a confused, half-hearted sort of wave. Only Webster remained motionless, choosing instead to fix Peter with his most intense stare.

Hyper aware of Rhodey watching them out of the corner of his eye, Peter crouched down to meet the spiders at eye level.

 **There** , he signed, pointing at the door for emphasis. **Danger. W, me, go. No danger. I come back, there _safe_. Then you follow. Understand?**

The spiders stared at him with blank expressions, but they were no longer pestering him with questions which usually meant they understood well enough. He wished he could explain all this to them in more depth, but they tended to get lost when he signed in complete sentences instead of his awkward, broken attempt at ASL. Still, not that long ago he was having trouble teaching them to respond to individual words like ‘food’ and ‘stay’. Who knew? Maybe in a year’s time they’d be nagging him to sign-interpret the Harry Potter series. Hell, at the rate they were progressing, maybe they’d be _reading_ the Harry Potter series.

With only minimal coaxing, he led Webster out into the hallway. Crepsley and Martha were disappointed but didn’t stir up too much of a fuss. Instead, they went back to pestering Rhodey despite knowing full well that he didn’t have the faintest idea what they were conveying. Natalie, on the other hand, launched a well-planned escape attempt while everyone was distracted. It was only thanks to Peter’s spidery senses and Wanda’s fortuitous timing that she was thwarted. Wanda decided to stay behind and help out with them until it was actually time to introduce the Avengers to Webster. Just in case.

When he _did_ get out the door with Webster in tow, Peter found himself unsure of how to proceed. He supposed they’d just have to wait by the door until Tony returned and gave the go ahead. _If_ he gave the go ahead.

“How you feeling, Webs? Ready to dazzle them with your charm?”

The spider stared at him.

“Or…I mean, yeah. That works too.” Peter sighed and slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor.

“You’re gonna be great,” he assured him, even though the spider had no idea what he was talking about. Webster hesitated before resting one of his fluffy feet on Peter’s arm. The spiders never failed to pick up on his distress, but Peter couldn’t remember the last time Webster had reached out to him like this. He got the feeling the spider was trying to comfort him but only had a vague notion of how to do so based on the interactions he’d observed between his siblings.

Peter made a point of smiling and scratched the spider’s head to show he appreciated it. Webster raised his head as if proud of his good work and tapped Peter’s arm a few more times just to be on the safe side. They waited there, side by side, until the door to the training rooms opened.

“Did it go okay?”

“…Yeah, I’d say so,” Tony said, but the pause spoke the words Tony refused to.

Peter took a deep breath. “Wanda should be here soon, FRIDAY said she’d tell her when you came back,” he said when he trusted himself to speak again.

“No rush.”

Funny, the silence that followed hadn’t seem so potent when it was just Peter and Webster.

“How’s he doing?” Tony asked after a time, nodding to the spider.

“Fine…I think he found the concept a little easier to grasp than Martha did.”

“Well…that’s something.”

The relief in the air was tangible when Wanda returned and shattered the awkwardness with lengthy assurances that Rhodey had things under control.

Unable to delay the inevitable any longer, Peter nodded and patted Webster on the head once more for luck before he marched into the lion’s den with his head held high and an Avenger on either side while one very large spider trailed along behind them.

When Peter stepped through the door, two thoughts crossed his mind. The first was one of panic stricken regret that he’d ever allowed himself to be talked in to this instead of fleeing to live out his existence in the wilderness with his adopted spider children. The second thought was a silent prayer of thanks to Thor and whatever other deities might exist out there that Tony had agreed to let him wear the mask because he was already sure his idols all saw him for the nervous wreck he was. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how he’d look without it.

It took every ounce of his will and strength to force his feet forwards when he caught sight of the Rogue Avengers waiting with crossed arms and a _broad_ variety of expressions. God, you’d think that all those years of Captain America PSAs would have made him immune to his Disappointed Face™. To his right stood Hawkeye and Falcon, both sported expressions which were equal parts curious and wary. He almost missed the Black Widow on the Captain’s left. Her expression leaned more towards…well, she looked unimpressed.

Right, breathing. Deep breath in, deep breath out and-

Peter held open the door a little wider and beckoned for Webster to step inside. The spider was cautious, just as Peter expected him to be. He only hoped the slow, predictable movements would serve to reassure the others.

There was a sharp intake of breath when he edged around the door and peered at the Avengers with his many, many eyes. Peter didn’t dare look back to gauge their responses (would Captain America be horrified by the fluffy, many legged child? Was Hawkeye harbouring a grudge for that incident in the living room? Would the Black Widow maintain her effortless air of apathy, or would she allow her revulsion to twist her features?). Instead, he focused on Webster’s reaction. He was nervous, curious, maybe a little reluctant. Peter crouched down so they were once again at eye level.

 **Safe** , he assured him. The spider shifted to stare at the Avengers again before taking those last few steps over the threshold. Peter sighed in relief and let the door close behind them.

He gave Tony a sharp nod to let him know they were good to continue.

“You want to do the honours, kid?”

His mouth felt dry all of a sudden. He didn’t need to look up to know everyone was staring at him.

“This is Webster,” he said but couldn’t help but flush beneath the mask when he heard a snort. “Hawkeye and the Falcon met him briefly before, but I didn’t really have the chance to run introductions.”

He risked a glance at the group and was surprised to find no trace of loathing or terror etched on their faces. Captain America was frowning, but if anything he looked…concerned. Falcon, while clearly uncomfortable, didn’t look sickened by the sight of him. Even the assassins seemed more curious than murderous.

A new found confidence crept over him, his voice steadier with every word he spoke. “I found them kind of by chance, this lab...Well, it's kind of complicated, but I got my powers by accident and these scientists were trying to figure out exactly how it happened so they could make super soldiers...Anyway, when I realised they were spying on me, I went to their lab to find out why and found these guys.”

He patted Webster on the head for emphasis and the spider preened. “Any questions?”

Clint Barton slowly raised his hand.

Peter looked at Wanda who looked at Tony who gave an unhelpful shrug in response.

“Um, yes?”

“That's not the spider that jumped me,” he deadpanned.

“Er, no. That was Meg.”

Sam snorted at the name but raised his hands in mock surrender when half of the people in the room turned to glare at him.

“I think what Clint means to say is,” Steve put in after shooting Sam a disapproving look, “where is the spider now?”

“She’s with Rhodey,” Tony answered on Peter’s behalf (much to the hero’s relief). “We were worried meeting you would stress them out, so we figured start with this one and see how it goes.”

“ _We_ might stress _them_ out?” Clint asked and even Captain Rogers seemed to be on his side with this one.

“New people do that to them sometimes,” Peter said with a shrug. “And Meg’s a pretty big Captain America fan.”

He had to admit, he found a certain satisfaction in their baffled expressions. He’d never thought Captain America _capable_ of making that look of utter bewilderment. Wanda tried and failed to suppress a snicker. Webster shuffled closer to her with a curious expression, as if he half expected her to keel over. She gave him an affectionate pat on the head to ease his concern, but the spiders were masters at emotional manipulation.

Sensing weakness, Webster fixed her with his most adorable look, bunching his legs tight against his body to make himself look smaller and waving his fluffy pedipalps. Wanda’s heart melted and without thinking she sat down on the floor so they could be at eye height while she fussed over him

Peter was too busy grinning at the pair of them to notice the shift in the atmosphere, but Tony did. The way the defensive stances began to loosen, the wariness giving way to curiosity. Clint’s animal-loving nature was clearly at war with his grudge against Meg.

Natasha met his eye and quirked an eyebrow, a faint smile tugging at her lips as her gaze flickered between him and the kid. He barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

“So, how would you guys feel about meeting some of the others?”

xxx

As it turned out, Martha and Crepsley were the _perfect_ choices. Natalie slipped in behind them but stayed out of the spotlight, how that was even _possible_ for a giant spider in an enclosed space, Peter couldn’t say.

Martha was her usual calm, patient self. She didn’t hesitate to approach the group but kept her movements slow and predictable, just like when she approached Happy or Rhodey. She gave them space, but made her curiosity known and let them come to her. It was a slow process, but the oppressive weight hanging in the air began to dissipate. The presence of _the_ Captain America made Crepsley a little reserved at first, but he soon took a liking to Sam and started following him around everywhere, much to the hero’s confusion. Clint found the whole thing endlessly amusing.

When they broke out the plushies the archer’s suppressed laughter became a cackle. Even Natasha cracked a smile when she saw the look of bewilderment on Steve’s face.

Natalie bided her time. She lurked high above them, watching from the safety of the rafters until everyone but Peter forgot she was even there. Waited for the Avengers to relax, for Peter to distract them by convincing Martha to give Sam a high five. Natasha Romanoff also preferred to watch things from afar. She hung back when the others surged forward. It made her approachable.

The spider waited and waited for the perfect moment. When she saw it, she scrambled down the wall as fast as her legs would carry her, using every trick she knew to stay out of view of the prying eyes. Only when she neared the ground did she falter. Though she didn’t make a sound, when she was only a few feet up off the ground the Black Widow turned her head to watch her in her peripheral vision.

The spiders struggled with facial expressions, perhaps for the best as Natalie couldn’t interpret the wariness in her expression. When the spy failed to move, she started to creep forward again. Little by little she inched closer, attention torn between the group of heroes and the spy she admired more than all of them. Peter noticed her early on in the mission, a quick glance between the spider and the assassin told him all he needed to know. He made the sign for ‘luck’ though the spider had no concept of it and said something to the group which made them all turn their backs to her.

Natalie paused when she was about a foot away from her, unsure of how to proceed. The spy stared at her with an inscrutable expression before her eyes flickered over to Peter, then back to the spider. She hesitated before, with slow deliberate movements, she crouched down and extended a hand towards her. Natasha wasn’t sure what she was expecting, maybe for the spider to headbutt her like a cat. Instead, after some awkward shuffling, she raised her frontmost right leg as if imitating Natasha’s gesture. Then, she ever so slowly moved to rest her fluffy foot on Natasha’s outstretched hand like a bizarre handshake. Natasha considered the spider for another few moments before she reached out with her other hand to rest a hand on her head, mindful to stay clear of her enormous eyes.

The stillness between them was broken when Clint who, no longer able to contain himself, let out a cooing noise like he’d just spotted an especially adorable puppy. Peter and Wanda clamped their hands over their mouths to keep from laughing when the spider and the spy turned on him with remarkably similar expressions. The archer raised his hands in surrender but was unable to wipe the grin from his face.

“Which spider is that again?” Sam asked with a frown.

“Natalie…my friend always jokes she’s like a mini-Black Widow.”

Natasha quirked an eyebrow but gave no other indication she’d even heard him. She didn’t even comment when Natalie proceeded to follow close on her heels as she strolled back towards the group, though it clearly took every ounce of Clint’s self-control not to.

“You guys want to meet some of the others?” Peter asked, somehow expressing his hopeful look even through the mask. When he met their blank expressions, he faltered a little. “I mean…we don’t _have_ to. You guys just seemed to be getting on so well with…and I know Violet is dying to meet Hawkeye…”

“There are _more of them?!_ ” Sam all but shrieked.

“I have a fan?” Clint asked with a grin.

xxx

All in all, it was a long day but an undeniable success. Bucky even joined them in the living room after Peter managed to corner Tony in the kitchen and confront him about the soldier’s absence. He claimed there were ‘safety concerns’ but, after a great deal of pestering, conceded and let Steve go find him. When they both returned, Crepsley raced over to greet Captain America as if he were meeting him for the first time all over again. Peter felt a pang of guilt when he realised they didn’t _sell_ Winter Soldier plushies. More than that, he’d never seen any of them idolise Bucky as they did the others. They didn’t crowd around when he was on TV, they didn’t even have a _sign word_ worked out for him.

He should have given his spiders more credit than that.

Though no one spider raced forward to see him, Bucky was hardly shunned as an outsider. Within seconds Edward spotted him standing in the doorway and approached with clear interest. Crepsley also picked up on his presence. When, with some coaxing from Steve, Bucky entered the room everything went still.

“Are they…okay?” he asked when sixty pairs of huge black eyes moved to focus on him with a terrifying intensity. Before Peter could respond, the room erupted into a mad flurry of movement. The soldier staggered back several steps as a wave of spiders charged towards him but every single one skidded to a stop before they collided with him.

It took Peter a few seconds to realise why their movements screamed _panic_ , and why Shelby and Oscar were practically trying to carry him over to the door. Then it hit him: they hadn’t realised Bucky was missing an arm.

He glanced between their panicked looks and the metal stump which, only a moment ago, had been obscured by the doorframe.

Tony and Steve were already mid-argument, the spiders had Bucky cornered, the other Avengers were looking on with expressions ranging from confusion to anger. Only Vision remained calm.

“Am I mistaken,” he said, just loudly enough to drown out Tony’s shouting, “in thinking they are concerned for his wellbeing?”

The fighting ceased, the angered expressions became ones of stunned disbelief. If not for the fact that Vision was on the other side of the room, Peter would have hugged him in that moment.

“Sorry, I think they’re worried he’s going to die or something…I’ll sort things out, though. I’m really, _really_ sorry Mr Barnes. They’ve seen photos of you with the metal arm, so I just assumed they figured it out but…” he trailed off and focused on conveying the situation to them in sign language instead.

Now that everyone knew they weren’t trying to drive him out, the team seemed to find it more amusing than anything. Bucky glowered when Steve tried and failed to suppress a snort of laughter which seemed to be Sam’s cue to tease him endlessly about having a small army of spiders mother-henning him. Vision stepped in to help explain it to them, much to Peter’s relief. It took a lot of creativity to shape the words they knew into a comprehensive explanation, especially since they had to keep their sentences short and choppy or else risk losing the attention of most of their audience. Even when they got it through to them that he wasn’t about to drop dead, most still fretted over him.

Bucky ended up sitting on a corner seat with Steve on his left but Crepsley squeezed in between them, his legs twitching from time to time as if he had to resist the urge to throw up a threat posture whenever someone came too close. Sam sat down on Steve’s other side, and Clint took the space next to him. Anna and Violet hoarded the floor by their feet but huddled together as if whispering conspiratorially and kept Bucky within view at all times. Anthony returned to Tony’s side though he tried to trick him into moving closer to the assassin whenever he thought the billionaire was distracted.

Needless to say he was unsuccessful.

Pepper took the corner seat on his right, so Rhodes took the spot on his left with Luna hovering as close to him as she could whilst still maintaining a respectful distance. On his other side, Oscar draped himself over Wanda’s lap and, though he was a little big, she didn’t seem to mind one bit. Meg sat on Vision’s left side instead of sitting between him and Wanda.

Though it could have been a coincidence, all of them were perfectly positioned to watch Bucky’s every move.

The other spiders were split between lurking by Bucky’s chair, watching from the best placed corners, and crowding around Peter who’d sat down on the remaining empty couch in anticipation of this. Natalie and Webster were nowhere in sight, but Peter suspected they’d be back when they grew bored of searching the halls for potential intruders.

“So, where did they actually _come_ from?” Bucky asked. Peter wasn’t sure what Tony said to dissuade the others from asking questions, but it seemed as though everyone in the room except for Tony, Rhodes, and Vision leaned forward in their seats with eager expressions. Even Natasha who’d adopted a bored expression looked up with interest.

“I already gave everyone else the outline. Basically a bunch of scientists cloned them from my DNA because they wanted to replicate my abilities.”

That didn’t seem to do anything to clear up the confusion and with everyone staring at him expectantly, Peter resigned himself to explaining the full story.

“Well, I guess it all started when I found this drone following me around and I decided to…investigate the people spying on me.”

“Hey, I never heard this bit,” Tony said with a frown, but Pepper shushed him and gestured for Peter to continue.

“Err, right. Well I found these labs with all these samples of my blood and stuff and files with all the information they could find about me- Spider-Man me that is. They never figured out my secret identity, thank God. Anyway, I started gathering everything I could find about me and Kar- I mean, I ended up in the room where all these guys were being kept. They were just babies back then, spiders are weird because they don’t just _hatch_ from an egg as tiny spiders, they go through all of these stages before then, so they were kind of past the egg stage but before the spiderling stage and they couldn’t really move around or anything.”

Peter opened his mouth to explain more about why they were growing the spiders in the first place but remembered he’d first have to explain that he got his powers via radioactive spider bite on a field trip and they _owned_ said spider which would inevitably lead Tony back to Oscorp. He’d kind of…smudged the details of the story a little to make it sound less like his major competitor and more like an illegal makeshift laboratory setup. He was pretty sure Tony didn’t buy it, but he sure as hell wasn’t about to open that can of worms _now_.

“Well, the files didn’t really go into specifics about the ‘how’ or the ‘why’, but they essentially cloned these guys from the spider-y strands of my DNA to try and find out more about how my powers work and stuff. But these guys had more or less served their purpose so…they were going to…you know. I couldn’t _leave_ them there to be- They were babies, you know?”

He shuddered at the thought. Bethany gave him a weird look when he patted her on the head without prompting, but she didn’t protest. When he looked up the expressions were…varied to say the least. Some, like Wanda, looked horrified by the prospect. Even Clint seemed to find the concept nauseating. Even Steve and Sam, though they clearly didn’t understand _exactly_ why he’d done it, they seemed sympathetic. Tony shot him an uneasy smile before, to Peter’s relief, he took over.

“Kid didn’t even tell me about it, Happy went over to his place to check on him after he got roughed up by some nut job and nearly had a heart attack.”

“Hey! It’s not my fault he went snooping, I _tried_ to keep them out of the way.”

“Needless to say,” Tony continued as if he’d never been interrupted, “we couldn’t leave them in a two bedroom flat. Especially at the rate they were growing. They moved in a few weeks before you all showed up on my doorstep unannounced.”

“How come you use sign language with them?” Clint piped up now it was clear they were allowed to ask questions.

“Spiders don’t hear the same way we do, they can feel vibrations but it’s hard for them to between different noises. Teaching them spoken language would have been _impossible_. They can understand signs though, just so long as we keep the sentences short and to the point.”

“What’s with the plushies?” it was Bucky who asked that one.

“They’re still kids,” Peter said with a shrug. “They find them comforting.”

As if to prove his point, Natalie crept in through the open door clutching her Black Widow plushie tightly.

They threw a dozen other questions at him (how big are they going to get? What’s with their names? Are they poisonous? Oh…well are they _venomous_ then? _Please_ tell me they haven’t actually eaten anybody). By the end of their impromptu Q &A, they were cracking jokes and teasing each other like the team never split at all.

The spiders protested more on principal than anything else when he announced they were off to bed. Half of them were already dozing off and the others grew grumpier as the night went on.

The team said their farewells and Vision offered to accompany him back to his rooms to ensure none of the spiders slipped away and doubled back. The room fell into a suspicious silence when they left, a silence which didn’t lift until even Peter’s sensitive hearing could only pick up distorted mumbles.

“They’re talking about us,” he said with a sigh.

“It seems likely,” Vision agreed. Peter wondered how far the android’s hearing extended. Further than his own? Could he make out any of what was being said?

“Do you think they’re more freaked out by all this than their letting on?”

“I think the situation will take some getting used to.”

“…They’re ganging up on Mr Stark, aren’t they?”

Vision took a moment to reply, maybe because he had to hack into FRIDAY’s security system with his brain or something else equally awesome. “Actually, at this moment Tony is attempting to convince his team mates that you are not biologically his.”

“He’s _what_?!”

xxx

Peter slept about as well as could be expected that night. It didn’t seem to matter how exhausted they were, the spiders couldn’t stop _fidgeting_. His alarm went off just as it seemed the spiders were finally settling down, but Peter doubted he’d be able to sleep again with the state of his nerves. Resigning himself to another caffeine fuelled day, he dragged himself out of bed and made his way over to the bathroom. Only Meg joined him when he left the room, and even she lacked her usual early-bird enthusiasm. He half-walked half-staggered into the kitchen only to find Tony, Pepper, and Vision already inside.

“Good morning, Peter,” Pepper said with a warm smile. How was it even _possible_ for people to look so put together this early? A _gallon_ of coffee couldn’t make him that chipper before nine.

He gave a slurred groan in response and started rummaging around in the cabinet for the coffee mix he liked. It tended to get shoved to the back whenever Tony replenished his own supply, Peter couldn’t help but feel like it was Tony’s attempt at converting him over to his smoother, _expensive_ coffee brands. Still, the top shelf was no match for his spider powers. After a short scavenger hunt Peter held the bag over his head, basking in his victory while the billionaire rolled his eyes.

“Did you sleep well?” Vision asked without looking away from Meg who’d climbed up on top of the countertop next to him.

“Eh, could have been better. You?” Peter asked before he remembered that Vision was an _android_. He turned hastily towards Tony and Pepper as if the question had been directed at them all along, but they didn’t buy it for one second.

“It was later than we would have liked, but we slept fine. Thank you for asking,” Pepper said, glowering at Tony as he chuckled into his coffee.

“Did everything go okay? You know…after I left? I got the feeling everyone was waiting for us to leave so you could hash things out.”

Pepper and Tony exchanged looks before the latter spoke up. “I told them arguing was off limits around the spiders, kind of surprised they took the advice if I’m being honest with you.”

“You didn’t _argue_ ,” Pepper corrected. “You _discussed_ the situation with them in more detail. You did a wonderful job of winning them over by the way, Peter.”

“Yeah but…are they mad?”

“No,” Pepper said before Tony had the chance. “They’re concerned, but they’re not angry. Although, to be perfectly honest with you, I think we’re _all_ a little concerned.”

“What? Why?”

“You weren’t exactly honest about where these guys came from,” Tony deadpanned before Pepper could cut him off again.

Oh… _oh_.

“I didn’t lie,” Peter pointed out. “I answered all of your questions honestly. I just…left some stuff out.”

“Like the fact that you were being _stalked_?” Tony asked.

“Just as Spider-Man, I would have told you if they figured out my secret identity or anything like that. It didn’t even go on for that long, they stopped after I broke their spy drone.”

“That doesn’t make this any less concerning,” Vision said, and Peter stared at him like a kicked puppy. Now _Vision_ was ganging up on him?

“It’s fine now, though. I handled it.”

“Pete, it’s not always that simple. If they were willing to steal your DNA to _clone giant spiders_ , you really think they’re going to lay off because you smashed a camera?”

“I stole all their files! They’ve got nothing left to work off of!”

“New files can always be made,” Vision put in. Meg prodded his arm in a clear request for reassurance in the form of head scratches. The android complied without hesitation, but his gaze didn’t leave Peter. “We can’t even say why these scientists are fixated on you.”

Peter hesitated before he mumbled something inaudible under his breath.

“Didn’t quite catch that.”

“I know why they came after me.”

“In that case, you feel like sharing with the class?”

Peter hung his head, eyes fixed on the floor. “So…I didn’t always have spider-y powers.”

He paused, but when no one spoke up he took it as a signal to keep going. “So, when I was fifteen, I went to this…place. _Legally_. On a trip, I didn’t break in or anything like that. I did kind of go snooping but I didn’t really go anywhere off limits or anything like that. I just hung back to look around, you know? But it turns out this…place had this…experiment running involving spiders and I guess one must have escaped or something because it bit me. I just thought I was coming down with the flu or something, I spent a few days puking my guts up and when it was all over,” he gestured to himself in way of explanation.

“But the people who _owned_ the spider were the same people who bred these guys,” he shot Meg a reassuring smile, but the spider seemed to sense something was amiss. She headbutted Vision’s hand before hopping off the cabinet and making her way over to Peter instead. “I don’t think they really intended for it to give me superpowers but based on their notes they made the connection between me and the missing spider. Well, not _me_ obviously, Spider-Man me.”

He risked a glance at the trio. All of them (Vision included) were staring at him with mounting looks of incredulity.

“You got your powers because you were bitten by a spider?” Pepper asked with a baffled expression.

“Well…yeah.”

“And you didn’t think to _mention_ any of this?”

“Well…no.”

Tony’s head hit the table with an audible _thud_.

“What is the name of this organisation?” Vision asked and for a split second Peter wished that spider had bestowed invisibility upon him instead.

“Um, I think I’m gonna plead the fifth on that one?” Peter said, but it came out as more of a suggestion.

Tony looked like he was caught between hitting his head off the table again and throttling him.

“You want to-”

“If I tell you who it is, you’re gonna go in there as Iron Man and beat the crap out of them and then you’re gonna get _sued_ Mr Stark,” he stressed. “I promise they’ve left me alone!”

“Hey, I have _some_ degree of self-control,” Tony said but Pepper shot him a look which clearly said she was unconvinced.

“Peter,” she said in her most reasonable business voice. “I know you’ve handled this situation pretty well on your own so far, but we have the spiders to consider now too. I’m sure a lot of time and resources were invested into this…project of theirs. You’re absolutely _certain_ they wouldn’t be interested in picking up where they left off?”

Peter opened his mouth to argue but it died in his throat. “Well…no.”

“What about the drone? You said they were spying on you before do you have any way of knowing for sure they won’t start again.”

“No, but my spidey senses picked up on the last one before they could find out anything useful. If they send another, I’ll just track that one down too.”

“And you’re confident they won’t find a way around this ‘spidey sense’?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Are you _absolutely_ sure there isn’t even the _slightest_ chance?”

“I’m…like 80% sure, yeah.”

“And you’re willing to stake your safety on a twenty percent margin of error?” Pepper asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“I mean…”

“You’re willing to stake _their_ safety?” she asked, gesturing to Meg. “Or your Aunt’s safety?”

Peter wilted.

“We can help you, but we need to know all the details,” Pepper said softly.

“Oscorp,” he mumbled, scratching Meg’s head more for his own benefit than anything else. “The spider belonged to Oscorp Industries.”

Everyone in the room went very, very still.

“I’m going to beat the crap out of them,” Tony announced.

“Oh no you’re not. Peter was right about one thing, they’ll definitely sue us for that and the last thing we need is for this mess to make it to the courts.”

“And if they come after him again?” he demanded.

“They won’t,” Peter said, and the room went quiet again. Well, there was no use holding back now. With a sigh, he ploughed forward. “Do you remember that crazy Goblin man I fought the day before you found out about the spiders?”

“The one who threw _bombs_ at you and wrecked your suit with you inside? Yes, I think I remember that nutjob.”

“Well that nutjob was…is…a kind of prominent person in Oscorp. And he knows that _I_ know who he is.”

Tony rubbed his temples as if it would do anything to alleviate his headache.

“May I ask just how prominent this individual is?” Vision asked when no one else seemed willing.

“He’s…he’s Norman Osborn, alright?”

Silence.

“Norman Osborn,” Pepper repeated. “Norman Osborn is a supervillain who dresses up like a goblin and throws pumpkin shaped bombs at teenagers.”

“…Yes?”

“I’m going to shove one of those pumpkin bombs down his throat,” Tony decided.

“And you are confident this information is enough to dissuade him from staging another attack?” Vision asked as if he’d never spoken. The expression on the android’s face bordered on concern.

“Pretty confident. It’s definitely worked so far.”

“No, that’s too good for him. I should go for something _slower_.”

“You’re not murdering Norman Osborn.”

“Well I’m not going to get _caught_.”

xxx

The summer ended way too soon for Peter’s liking. Without Vision, he was pretty sure the spiders would have staged a full scale revolt that first week back to school. Even with their nightly Skype call Peter considered asking Tony to send a driver at least four times a day, especially when they started fasting. He knew it wasn’t _that_ uncommon for spiders to stop eating, sometimes for months on end, but he’d never had a problem getting the spiders to eat before. According to Vision, they’d barely responded to the Captain America frisbee at all when he waved it to signify it was feeding time.

When Peter finally returned to the Compound on the Friday it took almost twenty minutes to convince the spiders to let him up off the ground. He spent the entire weekend watching movies with them, the other Avengers passing in and out of the room all the while. Clint turned into another go-to babysitter as his experiences working with animals in the circus (which he casually dropped into conversation as if Peter wouldn’t _immediately_ follow that up with a million questions) and with raising two kids of his own made him a natural at handling them. His understanding of sign language also made him the perfect candidate, though once or twice Peter caught Natasha signing to them when no one else was around.

Months passed, and they still attempted to convince him he didn’t actually _need_ school every Sunday night. But, assured that he would come back at the end of the week, the spiders tolerated his disappearances. The only good thing about going back to school was seeing Ned again. He peppered him with questions about what it was like to actually _stay_ with the Avengers and work next to _Tony freaking Stark_ in his _personal lab_. That, and the freedom of going out as Spider-Man again every night which, after such a long hiatus, felt positively liberating.

Life in the Compound remained erratic to say the least. He didn’t bother wearing his mask anymore, and one by one the Avengers learned his real name and pieces of his private life. Clint still shot suspicious looks at Tony whenever he helped Peter with his homework or offered to let him use the labs. Vision snitched on the betting pool before Natasha had a chance to steal one of Peter’s hairs for the paternity test and, to the team’s irritation, Tony shut them down.

Things only grew more hectic as Peter’s school life grew ever more intense, but the build up to Christmas brought some small relief from the never ending stress.

Steve and Bucky volunteered to haul the Christmas trees inside, but aside from that had spent most of the build up to Christmas doing their best to stay out of the way. Sam split tree decorating duty with Natasha (Tony really went overboard with those things) while Vision, Wanda, and Clint volunteered to decorate the rest of the place. Peter, while only there on weekends, helped Vision hang the strings of lights around the outside of the buildings while Wanda took it upon herself to bedazzle the giant A on the roof.

Disaster struck midway through the decorating process when Clint made the mistake of showing them How The Grinch Stole Christmas. It didn’t _seem_ like a problem until everyone came out the next morning to find the rooms absent of all things Christmas related. The strings of tinsel artfully draped around the doorframes, the wreaths in every room, the lights hanging down over every window, even the decorations from the trees. It took Peter the better part of an hour to explain the actual plot of the movie and how the fluffy green man was _not_ the hero because he’d stolen the gifts in the first place, but because he realised his mistake and gave them back to the creepy, squished-faced people. It took _another_ fifteen minutes to convince Crepsley to tell him where he’d hidden the star from the top of the tree.

When Peter tried to explain the situation to the rest of the Avengers, his stuttered apologies were soon drowned out by whooping laughter. He supposed they could have screamed at him instead, but the non-stop teasing almost made him wish they’d been a _little_ angrier about the whole thing. Even with the explanation, Vision still faced the trying task of preventing the spiders from tearing down the Christmas decorations. They didn’t really _mean_ to do it, they just had a tendency to prod things that captured their curiosity and their sticky feet had a habit of growing entangled in the delicate decorations. For the most part, they listened when he warned them not to touch the strands of tinsel lining the doorways or the paper snowflakes Wanda made for the windows. He even managed to convince them to stop climbing the Christmas trees…or at least, that’s what they all thought before a tremendous crash and the tinkling of broken glass echoed through the Compound.

Peter launched himself out of his seat, sending his school books crashing to the floor. Ignoring Meg’s protests, he sprinted towards the source of the noise and skidded to a stop at the doorframe to the living room when he caught sight of the broken glass. He barely resisted the urge to facepalm when he caught sight of Shelby perched on the toppled Christmas tree, surrounded on all sides by the shattered remains of every bauble and ornament Sam had lovingly placed on the branches over the course of _hours_.

Of course, out of over a dozen trees scattered throughout the Compound, she _had_ to go for the twelve foot tall monstrosity in the living room.

Tony, to his credit, seemed completely unphased when he peered into the room over Peter’s shoulder. “Hey, Clint, do me a favour and go get Vision to help the kid keep the spiders out of the area while we clean up all this up? Wouldn’t want them cutting their feet on the glass.”

“Yeah, because that’d be _tragic_ if they hurt their precious feet while we’re bagging all this shit up,” he grumbled under his breath as he disappeared out the door, but Peter knew he didn’t really mean it.

Peter wasn’t wearing shoes, so he leapt to the ceiling and got to work rescuing Shelby from her perch at the epicentre of the carnage. It wasn’t easy to pick her up from this position, but she soon realised what he was trying to do and did her best to make it easy on him. In the end, she latched onto his back while he crawled back across the ceiling to deposit her in the glass-free kitchen. A half dozen other spiders crowded round the door to watch them, but Vision prevented them from attempting to cross the threshold.

Wanda soon showed up with a roll of bin bags and a broom and Peter resigned himself to his fate.

xxx

No one in the kitchen looked up when Peter staggered in and seemingly passed out slumped against the kitchen counter.

“Morning, Peter,” Pepper greeted without looking up from her Stark issue tablet. Peter groaned pitifully in response and mumbled something incoherent about Spanish tests. Having spent enough time around Tony to know the proper procedure for this sort of thing, Steve slid a mug of coffee towards him and received a ‘God bless America’ for his efforts.

Peter started to come around about the same time Clint wandered. The two didn’t really interact all that much, but Peter had picked up a few facts about the archer along the way.

Never get involved in a prank war with him, if he catches you assisting ‘the enemy’, you’re marked as acceptable collateral in all future pranks. If he gives you some vague advice about how you probably should avoid a certain area at a certain time, you _take that advice_ …And if he goes quiet when he’s in his civilian gear, it’s probably a very bad thing.

“How’s it going Legolas?” Tony asked. Peter couldn’t help but feel as though everyone in the room was holding their breath as they waited for his response. The archer froze with one hand still outstretched towards the coffee maker. He turned to glower at Tony as if he wanted nothing more than to break every bone in his body and, apparently unwilling to waste time grabbing a mug, grabbed the _entire_ coffee pot on his way back out the door.

“What’s up with him?” Peter asked between gulps of still steaming coffee.

“His flight was cancelled. He’s trying to get a replacement but so far it’s not looking good, he’s starting to worry he won’t make it home in time for Christmas,” Natasha replied.

“Oh...Are all the other flights booked up or something?” To be honest, Peter didn’t really know all that much about the logistics of booking a flight. The few holidays times he’d been out of the state, it was always by car or bus. Before that impromptu trip to Germany, he’d never even been on a plane. He thought maybe he’d said something stupid because everyone stared at him with blank expressions.

“Peter,” Pepper said slowly, “have you looked out a window since you woke up?”

He blinked at her, his sleep addled brain struggling to catch up. “Uhhhh…”

Tony rolled his eyes and gestured to the door to the living room.

Peter made a noise of protest when Natasha moved his coffee cup out of reach before he had a chance to so much as blink.

Thanks a lot spidey-senses.

Grumbling, he slipped out of his chair and dragged himself into the living room. And if his exit was a tad melodramatic? Well, it wasn’t like he could be faulted for it so early in the morning.

His jaw dropped in surprise as he gazed out of the floor to ceiling window at the great expanse of snow where just yesterday there’d been green grass only just beginning to succumb to the creeping frost. Beyond the field, he saw the snow had settled over the dense woods that marked the edge of the perimeter. It seemed to banish the ever present shadows, transforming the looming presence into the kind of wintery scene you’d expect to see on a postcard.

For the first time in almost a year, he longed for his camera.

“When...”

“It only just stopped snowing about twenty minutes before you walked in,” Natasha replied, making him near jump out of his skin. He still wasn’t sure how that woman always managed to sneak up on him. Spy training shouldn’t trump super hearing, right? She was wearing heels on hardwood floors for crying out loud!

“Do you think May will be alright getting here?”

“Tony has a small army clearing the roads as we speak, I’m sure she’ll be alright.”

Natalie dropped down from the ceiling in a move that would have given anyone else a heart attack. Natasha had long since grown used to the spider skulking in the corners of whatever room she happened to be in. Peter was just used to the spider, period. She crept forward to gaze out the window with a curious expression. Peter couldn’t help but grin.

The spiders had never really experienced a snow day before.

xxx

The ‘snow day’ didn’t turn out to be very successful. Despite their best efforts, even the might of the Avengers wasn’t enough to convince the spiders that playing in the snow was a good idea. Still, Peter got into a snowball fight with _Captain America,_ so he couldn’t claim the day wasn’t a success. Of course, as soon as Clint got involved it turned into a bloodbath. He seemed to have a lot of pent up aggression after spending most of the day on the phone with various airlines. Peter’s spidey senses were the only thing keeping him from being buried under the seemingly endless snowballs the archer continued to hurl with frightening accuracy.

Other members of the team weren’t quite so fortunate.

“That’s it!” Wanda all but screeched. Peter’s only regret was that he couldn’t see the look on Clint’s face when the snow turned red. The archer barely had time to dive out of his makeshift perch/snow bunker before every inch of snow within fifteen feet launched itself towards him. He stared in horror as the magically induced avalanche consumed his safe haven.

The tides turned for a time…before Natasha caught wind of their joint effort to demolish Clint. That of course led to Bucky joining in to help Steve get revenge on the assassin duo. Wanda turned on them when Sam showed up to join in the fight, Peter guessed she wanted to even the playing field.

By the end of it they were all soaked to the bone, the _sane_ ones shivering from the cold. Tony shook his head at the sight of them but left to get towels all the same. Most of the spiders had chosen to watch them through the living room windows, but that didn’t stop them from expressing their confusion and concern when they all bundled up under blankets in the living room.

Peter really wasn’t sure when the TV went on or how Clint ended up trying to explain the plot of ‘Home Alone’ to Steve and Bucky while Peter reassured the spiders that no tarantulas had actually been harmed in the making of the film.

Tony feigned disinterest in their impromptu movie night, but Pepper just rolled her eyes and dragged him inside. Rhodey stumbled upon them not long after, merely raising an eyebrow at the sight of the team sprawled out across three couches, weighed down with blankets with the spiders taking advantage of every available space. He took one of the new chairs Tony had added to the room (not exactly a communal living area if half of you have to sit on the floor) and asked them to fill him in on what was happening in the movie.

They’d lost the remote at some point, but nobody could be bothered moving to look for it. Peter was pretty sure Tony could just order FRIDAY to change the channel, but he guessed even the billionaire found Clint’s narration of the discounted Christmas movie pretty funny. Or maybe he just enjoyed the offended looks Steve and Bucky shot Clint when he decided the Yeti or ‘Snow Rug’ had a stereotypical Brooklyn accent. The parody only grew more outlandish as the movie progressed, but no one had any clue what it was supposed to be about in the first place, so it didn’t really matter.

Aunt May arrived looking like she’d been rolling around in the snow outside just as the credits rolled up on screen.

“It’s turning into a full on blizzard out there. If I’d left any later, I’m not sure I would have made it,” she explained as she greeted each of the spiders in turn. They fretted, prodding her soaking wet jacket with their fluffy feet and shying away from her icy hands.

“Wait, is Happy still here?”

“I think he said he was going around the back to park the car. Why?”

“I have to give him his Christmas present!” Peter exclaimed, giving his aunt a quick hug before he raced out of the room leaving Tony to stare blankly after him.

“He got _Happy_ a Christmas Present?”

xxx

Peter caught up with the driver just as he stepped into the elevator to take him out the underground parking lot.

“Hey, Happy! Hold on a second,” Peter shouted before the driver could escape. His speedy reflexes were the only thing that kept the elevator doors from closing in his face.

“Kid? The hell are you doing here?” Happy asked with a baffled expression. It was odd to see the normally composed and professional looking driver with chunks of melting snow clinging to his hair.

Peter held up a battered, poorly wrapped package with a ridiculous red bow taped just a little left of the box’s centre. “Here.”

Happy stared at him with a blank expression. “What the hell is that.”

“It’s a gift!”

“I don’t have a gift for you.”

“I know, I just thought you might like this one,” Peter said and shook the package for emphasis.

Happy opened his mouth to refuse the present, but he caught sight of the teenager’s wide smile and hopeful eyes and thought better of the whole thing.

“Thanks, kid,” he grunted. “I’ll, uh, make it up to you on your birthday.”

“No worries. Make sure you open the card _after_ the present,” Peter said just as the elevator doors opened. “You go on ahead, I’ve gotta go back to the living quarters.”

Happy stepped out of the elevator on autopilot, still too stunned to really comprehend what the hell just happened. He looked back at the kid who shot him a thumbs up. Right before the doors closed, he added: “and don’t open it until Christmas!”

With the kid gone, Happy looked back down at the packaged. It was small and unassuming. It didn’t _look_ dangerous.

His eyes flickered back to the elevator before he tore off the wrapping paper to reveal a still sealed amazon box. Happy snorted and fished around for his keys to slice through the tape. After a whole lot of hassle and an absurd amount of packaging, he found a very fluffy, stupidly soft spider plush.

Happy stared at it in disbelief as though it might disappear at any moment. When he realised it wasn’t going to vanish, he rummaged through the discarded packaging for the card the kid had mentioned. Going by the tabby cat wearing a Santa hat on the front and the words ‘Have a Purrrrrfect Christmas!’, his aunt had won the right to pick the Christmas cards again this year. Peter once explained that the Christmas Card Debate was a sacred Parker family tradition which usually wound up being settled over a coin toss or, on one memorable occasion, a game of Monopoly.

_To Happy,_

_I know you don’t really like Christmas, but since the spiders don’t have a plushie of you I thought you might like a plushie of the spiders! Kind of. I couldn’t find a jumping spider but I think this is kind of close._

_Happy Holidays!_

_\- Peter, Aunt May, Ben, Anna, Crepsley, Martha, Beth, Charlotte, Anthony, Meg, Oscar, Luna, Ed, Shelby, Violet, Natalie & Webster_

Peter evidently struggled to fit those last few names in as his writing grew smaller and smaller until the letters grew so crammed together the names were almost indistinguishable. Happy slipped the card back into its envelope and carefully wrapped the stuffed spider back up in the packing paper. His face remained inscrutable, but on the inside, he was already planning out Peter’s birthday gift.

xxx

The build up to Christmas was a blur. Clint continued to sulk as the snow showed no sign of letting up. Natasha took it upon herself to drag him out into the open every once in a while, she claimed he was intolerable when left to stew. When he allowed himself to be dragged out of hiding for a few hours, he usually spent it keeping the spiders entertained. Peter wasn’t really sure why, but he sure as hell wasn’t complaining. The spiders _loved_ him.

Finally, two days before Christmas, the snow eased up its assault and Tony confirmed that the skies would be clear enough for him to take the Quinjet back home Christmas morning. The archer all but skipped to breakfast that morning, startling the spider who’d grown used to his moodiness.

“Is Nat gonna go with you?” Pepper asked as she poured him a fresh cup of coffee.

“Probably, yeah. She pretends she only tolerates it, but I think she enjoys it a lot more than she lets on. Sorry we’re going to miss the spiders’ first Christmas,” Clint added. Peter was taken off-guard by the sincerity in his tone.

“It’s fine, I don’t they really understand what the big deal is. Well, I rearranged their feeding schedule, so they get an extra large meal on Christmas day. I think they’re pretty excited about that.”

“Yeah, well. Just be sure to tell them which present was from me, alright?”

Peter blinked. “You got them something?”

“Course I did, I’ll admit it’s kind of a joint present because I couldn’t think of something to buy them individually but hey, it’s the thought that counts right?”

Peter wasn’t sure why the concept was so hard to wrap his head around. Clint bought the spiders a Christmas present. It shouldn’t be that big of a deal, right? Hell, Ned bought Christmas presents for his _cat_.

“Maybe…Maybe I could give them their gift on Christmas Eve, so you can be there?” Peter offered.

“Sounds great, I’ll tell Nat to get her gift out of storage too. She always finds the _best_ hiding places.”

Peter stared after him long after he’d vanished from sight.

Did…Did _everyone_ have Christmas gifts for them?

xxx

The Avengers whole heartedly embraced the idea of celebrating on Christmas Eve instead. As it turned out, a lot of them had plans on Christmas Day. Nobody complained about being able to exchange their gifts in person.

The spiders found the whole experience baffling, but when they realised the oddly shaped bundles under the tree contained _presents,_ they all but lost their minds. Peter got the impression they actually enjoyed unwrapping the presents as much as they did receiving them because they got a little carried away and started unwrapping _everyone’s_ presents. The team were too busy cackling to be angry about it, although there was a bit of confusion as they tried to work out who each of the gifts were for with the tags scattered in pieces across the room.

“Well,” Tony spoke up when the madness had died down. “I will admit, I did keep one gift back. Pepper’s been bugging me to return it for a while, something about symbolism and positive PR-”

“Tony,” Pepper said in her ‘this is your first and final warning’ voice.

“Er, right. Well, without further ado.”

He left the room and returned with a very large, very round package. “For you, Rogers.”

Peter had a fairly good idea as to what was inside, he himself had heard him and Pepper argue about the shield on countless occasions…what he couldn’t figure out was why Tony looked so smug about it. Had he misread the situation? Had they really moved past everything that happened between them.

 _“Tony doesn’t really_ forgive _people per say,” Pepper explained with a wistful smile. “He prefers to get even.”_

The wrapping paper hit the floor and Steve stared at the shield with wide eyes. Peter twigged before he could start his thank you speech, every spider in the room turning to stare at the very familiar red and blue disk with hungry eyes.

“ _Run!_ ” Peter screamed. Some of the Avengers jumped in alarm, but others like Wanda and Clint who’d spent more time around the spiders seemed to realise what was happening.

He was pretty sure Steve didn’t actually understand what was going on, but when fifteen giant spiders _leaped_ at him, he took Peter’s advice to heart. He made it out the door with not a second to spare, the spiders barrelling after him eagerly.

“What…What the hell just happened?” Sam asked, apparently too stunned to even try going after them.

“I throw them a Captain America frisbee before I feed them,” Peter groaned. “Seeing the real one must have triggered a feeding response.”

“They’re not going to…You know, _eat_ him or anything, right?” Bucky said warily.

“Not at all,” Vision assured him. “They simply think he is about to feed them. The prospect of food is just rather exciting for them.”

“You did that on purpose,” Pepper said, but her glower didn’t have the same affect with the smile plastered across her face.

“Who, me?” Tony asked, looking aghast with a hand over his heart as if he couldn’t _possibly_ understand why anyone would make such a heinous accusation. “It was _your_ idea to give him back his shield as a symbol of how far we’ve progressed. How was _I_ to know the spiders would run him out of the Compound because of it.

“Quite literally,” May muttered, drawing everyone’s attention to the window. Steve had evidently sprinted to the other side of the building and out the fire exit. Even now they could see the spiders piling out of the double doors to trail after him. Now they were on open ground, Steve started to pull ahead of them. Despite this, not one of them faltered in their chase, each one following him every step of the way with a single minded determination.

When he was far enough ahead, Steve stopped just long enough to hurl the shield across the grounds. Immediately the spiders altered course, passing Steve without so much as glancing at him as they charged after their prize.

“You have your spider-grandchildren well trained, Stark,” Clint laughed, and Peter held his breath as he waited for Tony to dismiss the comment with a well-placed one liner. Instead, he smiled.

“Yeah, I guess I do.”

xxx

“But Mr Stark-”

“ _Tony_.”

“You already got us loads. Just letting them stay here is-”

“Common decency and nothing more.”

“ _And_ you already got us Christmas gifts.”

“I gave _you_ a Christmas gift, this is _their_ Christmas gift.”

“Just give up,” Pepper said with a sigh. “He’s been working on it since he found out about them. Nothing you say will convince him.”

Peter’s eyes went huge and May patted him on the shoulder. “You’ll understand when you see it.”

“Why do you get to know what it is anyway?”

“Because I knew I had to get her approval from day one,” Tony replied. “Besides, I wanted her input.”

Peter sighed again and counted the spiders again to make sure everyone was accounted for. “So, when do I get to know where we’re going?”

“When we get there.”

“Oh _come on_.”

“We’re coming up on it right now,” Pepper said before an argument could break out.

They came to a stop outside the reinforced door that linked the living areas to Tony’s personal labs. Peter had never actually been allowed _inside_ them although he helped him out in the R &D ones often enough. Technically these labs were a building in of themselves, but Tony liked having the easy access to the living rooms and the kitchen.

“Are we…I mean, does this mean I’m allowed to see…?” Peter asked, his eyes wide with hope.

“Actually, you’ve already been inside my private lab. I had to say _something_ to keep you out of here while I was working.”

Before Peter could ask, Tony opened the double doors and gestured for them to step inside. The air left Peter’s lungs as he took in the room.

Despite the building taking up several stories, the room he stepped into seemed span the entire height of the building, with a glass ceiling to top it all off, giving a stunning view of the pale blue sky. The open space didn’t go to waste though, for the entire thing seemed to be an enormous jungle gym.

A lump formed in Peter’s throat as he took in every meticulous detail. The beams clearly made for climbing but easily broad enough for the spiders to get a good hold on. The carefully positioned nets to catch them if they slipped on any of the more daring structures. The swinging ropes, the colour coded jumping platforms, the huge tunnel system woven through the whole thing that would probably house the spiders even if they doubled in size. Above it all hung an enormous spiderweb spanning the entire width of the room, so tight knit that Peter was certain he could comfortably lie on it without worrying about slipping through the gaps. A spiderweb big enough to hold them all, where they could lie on their backs and stare up at the sky through the glass ceiling.

“I…when did you? _How_ did you?”

“Do you like it? I wanted to ask for your help on it, but I wasn’t sure you’d let me build it. I asked May about what to include and she came up with the tunnels. There are rooms in this building as well, so if in a few years you feel like moving in, but they can’t fit through the doors anymore, you won’t be stuck sleeping in the spiderweb. There’s a room for May as well, of course. It’s right next to the kitchen. I know you don’t like things fancy, so I tried to keep it minimalist. I designed the whole building from scratch, so hopefully they’ll still be able to get around even if they _do_ grow to be the size of a Prius but if they outgrow anything, I’d be happy to- Oof”

Peter threw his arms around the billionaire before he could convince himself it was a bad idea.

“It’s _perfect_.”

Tony hesitated before resting a hand on his back. “Anytime, kid. They deserve more than a hell of a lot more than a concrete bunker.”

“He wanted to buy them an island in the Caribbean, but I convinced him you’d want to be able to visit them,” Pepper said with a warm smile.

“You know,” May put in. “I’m not the best at reading them, but I’m pretty sure they want to tour.”

Peter turned around and grinned as the spiders wandered in. They’d grown so much these past few months, but they still had that childlike wonder whenever they saw something _new_.

“ **Come on in, guys** ,” Peter signed with a grin. “ **This is your new home**.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been working down to the wire trying to get this finished for you guys. I've had a blast writing this series, I can only hope you all enjoyed reading it!


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